US Navy Treating Two Survivors of Latest Airstrike on Alleged Venezuelan ‘Drug Vessel’ in Caribbean: Report
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The Navy is medically treating two survivors of the latest U.S. airstrike on an alleged Venezuelan cartel “drug vessel,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The two survivors were rescued from their sunken submersible by the Coast Guard on Thursday and transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, where a medical staff was waiting to treat them, the report said.
This was the sixth known air strike against alleged drug runners and the first time any survivors have been reported.
Twenty-seven people have been killed so far in the Trump administration’s offensive against what they say are Venezuelan drug gangs transporting drugs from Latin America to the U.S.
Venezuela’s top ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, held a press briefing with reporters at the U.N. on Thursday where he denounced the strikes and urged Trump to “stop this madness.” Moncada said the family of two of the men who were killed said they were fishermen from Trinidad and Tobago, and not drug traffickers.
This week, Trump said he authorized the CIA to “take covert action in Venezuela, while also hinting that land strikes inside Venezuela could also be conducted,” the Journal reported.
“We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea,” Trump told reporters. “So, you get to see that, but we’re going to stop them by land also.”
Trump has claimed that “every one of those boats is responsible for the death of 25,000 American people and the destruction of families. So when you think of it that way, what we’re doing is actually an act of kindness.” However, U.S. lawmakers and some Pentagon insiders have expressed concern over the legality of the strikes without definitive proof that the boats were carrying drugs — and whether the deadly strikes were legal even if drugs were present.
The administration hasn’t commented on the recent survivors or disclosed where they’ll be taken.
