Interior minister says ‘murder has been committed’ amid rising tensions over US military strike on boat in Caribbean
None of the 11 people killed in a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean last week were members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s interior minister has said, as the South American country deployed troops amid heightened tensions with the US.
The administration of Donald Trump has said the boat was transporting illegal narcotics, but has provided scant further information about the incident, even amid demands from members of the US Congress for a justification for the action.
“They openly confessed to killing 11 people,” the interior minister and ruling party head, Diosdado Cabello, said on state television. “We have done our investigations here in our country and there are the families of the disappeared people who want their relatives, and when we asked in the towns, none were from Tren de Aragua, none were drug traffickers.
Even if they WERE gang members, civilized nations do not shoot civilians.
They could have boarded the ship and detained them, but they chose violence.
They even admitted they could’ve interdicted the boat, but chose to kill them instead.
It was 100% absolutely, unquestionably a war crime.
And even if Trump is immune, the rest of those involved are NOT. Some of them are lawyering up, because war crimes can carry a death penalty.
Only one soldier ever faced consequences for the My Lai massacre and he only got three and a half years of house arrest, so it’s not like we care that much about war crimes anyway.
The only person in Washington talking sense about this is… Wait, let me double check. Uh, yea it’s Rand Paul.
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That Rand Paul is the voice of reason bodes very very badly.
The thing with blowing them up instead of taking them into custody, is that there is no evidence to prove the allegations against them. They blew it up. If they really wanted to justify their actions, this was not the way.
We know they probably weren’t just speedboat enthusiasts but blowing the boat up sets a precedent for extrajudicial killing without first establishing guilt.
Of course, this had nothing to do with justice, it was only about sending a very visual message to the other cartels that only US backed cartels are allowed.
Given that Venezuela has chronic shortages of almost everything, these days…it’s entirely possible they were smugglers. But they could have been smuggling anything from mail-order packages, to cash, or even medicine. We’ll never know now.
This will just motivate Venezuela to hurry around their military modernization effort possibly with a lot more public support than before
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I don’t trust Trump about this, but I trust Venezuela about as much as I trust Trump.
All else being equal, the guy who destroys all the evidence is less trustworthy.
have you heard why there were 11 drug dealers together on a small boat and where they were supposed to be going?
when we asked in the towns, none were from Tren de Aragua, none were drug traffickers
Both sides provided “trust me, bro” as their proof.
Ok but the usa is the one who attacked so they are the one who has to provide evident. Venezuela doesn’t have to prove anything
Even if they were gang members smuggling drugs, that’s still not how the law is dealt in the civilized world. They’re still civilians and it’s still murder.
Agree i only debated that part of your previous comment Both sides provided “trust me, bro” as their proof.
There is only one side who should provide proofs with is the USA
You’ve been trained well.
…and the right says “well it was the liberals’ fault so can you blame us??”
Collateral murder, just that it’s not leaked but openly posted and there is basically no outcry
Paul has argued the US cannot simply kill people suspected of wrongdoing without due process
The fact that this is a real sentence in a real news article is honestly beyond insane.
