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Venezuela boat strikes: Kill first, justify never?

The parallels with former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s methods are striking.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks alongside President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. Hegseth said on Tuesday that he had not noticed survivors in the water during U.S. military strikes that killed 11 people in the Caribbean in September. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with US President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, on Dec 2.

PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES

Cory Alpert

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Over the last four months, the Trump administration has been

ramping up its belligerence in the Caribbean

. In September, news broke that the US military had begun lethal operations against alleged drug traffickers in international waters, sinking small vessels used by both cartels and ordinary fishermen, with 20 such strikes since.

What is emerging is not a conventional counternarcotics mission, but a pattern of extrajudicial killings carried out far from public scrutiny.

Venezuela boat strikes: Kill first, justify never?

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