Venezuela: Trump Administration Announces Renewed Strikes Following ‘Armed Conflict’ Declaration

Caracas, October 6, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Donald Trump administration reported two new attacks against boats in Caribbean waters amidst an ongoing large-scale military deployment on a purported anti-narcotics mission near Venezuelan waters.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a strike Friday against a vessel in the US Southern Command’s “area of responsibility,” off the coast of Venezuela. According to the US official, four male crew members were killed.

In a social media post, Hegseth claimed the boat carried “substantial amounts of narcotics” and was headed to the US, but did not disclose any supporting evidence. A 37-second video released showed a speedboat traveling before being bombed and engulfed in flames.

On Sunday, Trump referred to another boat attack the night before during a speech at a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia.

“In recent weeks, the Navy has supported our mission to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water,” he said. “We did another one last night. Now we just can’t find any.” He did not provide any information about the vessel’s crew or cargo.

Trump added that the military would move on to hitting alleged drug trafficking on land. According to reports, the White House is weighing attacks against purported drug targets inside Venezuelan territory, while US officials have also raised the possibility of strikes in Mexico.

The latest announced bombings take the total of targeted speedboats to at least five since early September, with over 20 civilians reportedly killed. The identities of the victims have not been disclosed. One woman who identified as the wife of one of those killed in an attack told the New York Times her husband was a fisherman.

Legal experts have condemned the US military’s lethal strikes as extrajudicial executions that disregard established protocols of intercepting unarmed vessels. Several members of Congress have criticized the White House’s unilateral use of force and proposed war powers legislation to curtail further strikes.

The Trump administration reacted by sending a notification to Congress in which it determined that the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

The communication, sent after a September 15 strike on a Venezuelan boat that killed three people, argued that drugs smuggled into US territory constitute an “armed attack” and that the alleged traffickers were “unlawful combatants.”

According to multiple reports, a number of US legislators questioned the legal reasoning, while former State Department adviser Brian Finucane stated that the justification “is not supported by the facts.”

Since mid-August, the White House has stationed at least eight warships, aircraft and an estimated 4,500 troops in the Caribbean in a declared mission against drug trafficking. US officials have levied “narcoterrorism” accusations against high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including a US $50 million bounty against President Nicolás Maduro.

However, Washington has not provided any court-tested evidence of narcotics activities tied to Venezuelan leaders. Drug trafficking reports by both the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have found Venezuela not to be a drug-producing country and to play a marginal role in narcotics trafficking.

Venezuela denounces aircraft incursion, ‘false flag’ plot

The Maduro government has responded to Trump’s military threats with defensive exercises and a reinforced armed forces deployment along the nation’s terrestrial and maritime borders.

Military spokespeople recently reported on the dismantling of encampments allegedly belonging to armed groups in Zulia state, with the confiscation of weapons and drugs. Venezuelan forces likewise disclosed the destruction of “logistical structures” in Sucre state and the seizure of boats allegedly destined for drug smuggling. In September, Caracas also announced the dismantling of what it called a DEA “false flag operation” to stage drug shipments from Venezuela.

Caracas has additionally warned against efforts to stage “provocations” in order to trigger a violent conflict aimed at producing regime change.

On Sunday, Venezuelan National Assembly President and lead international negotiator Jorge Rodríguez denounced an alleged false flag operation by “local far right sectors” to plant lethal explosives in the US embassy building in Caracas.

“We have warned the US government of this serious threat through three different channels,” Rodríguez wrote in a social media post, pledging that authorities would reinforce security around the embassy.

The warning from the high-ranking official, who serves as a liaison with Washington, followed the Venezuelan Defense Ministry report Thursday that five US fighter jets entered the country’s Flight Information Region (FIR) and flew 75 kilometers from Venezuelan shores. Caracas denounced it as a “maneuver threatening [Venezuelan] sovereignty” and vowed to take the complaint to the United Nations and other multilateral organizations.

Venezuela has received support from geopolitical allies China and Russia in the face of the present US military threats. Latin American governments and regional integration bodies have likewise condemned Washington’s naval deployment and reiterated a commitment to peace.

Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja in Mexico City, Mexico.