The U.S. Army Arrests Survivors After Raid on Drug Submarine in the Caribbean
In a new development within an escalating military campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Army conducted an airstrike targeting a submarine dedicated to drug trafficking in Caribbean waters, resulting in at least one death and the arrest of two survivors.
Trump explained during a press conference at the White House that the targeted submarine was specifically designed to transport large quantities of drugs, emphasizing that "the attack was successfully executed against a target that posed a direct threat to the country's security."
* Operation Details: First Time Someone Survives
According to reports from the Associated Press citing U.S. officials, the strike carried out by the military last Thursday is the sixth of its kind since August and is the first in which some of the targets survived.
The vessel that was bombed was likely of the semi-submersible type, which are low-visibility maritime vehicles increasingly used by smuggling networks in Latin America, due to their difficulty in being detected by radar and satellites.
After the strike, U.S. forces conducted an aerial rescue operation using a helicopter, where the survivors were transported to a U.S. warship, and their legal status remains unclear amidst growing legal debate over classifying them as "prisoners of war" or "civilian criminals."
* Rising Tensions with Venezuela
The operation comes amid a sharp escalation in relations between Washington and Caracas, where Trump revealed that he had given the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the green light to carry out covert operations against the Venezuelan government, noting that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had offered major concessions to avoid escalation.
Trump's statements provoked anger from Maduro, who condemned what he called "CIA-led coup attempts" and ordered military drills within the country in anticipation of any direct U.S. action.
* Death Toll Rises and Warnings of Escalation
This latest raid raises the death toll of drug traffickers to 28 since the start of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean, as part of what the U.S. administration described as a "comprehensive campaign to dismantle cross-border smuggling networks."
Amid international condemnations of these operations from several Latin American countries, concerns are growing that Washington may be preparing the ground for a broader intervention in Venezuela, especially as the scope of targets expands from drug trafficking to the political structure of the Venezuelan regime itself.
So far, the U.S. Department of Defense and the White House have not issued additional details regarding the identities of the survivors or the nature of the ongoing investigations, while the operation remains a turning point in Washington's military approach to threats coming from South America.
