Venezuela has condemned President Trump’s unilateral declaration, in a Saturday post on social media, that all airspace surrounding Venezuela is closed. Meanwhile, President Trump said the U.S. is poised to launch attacks inside Venezuela itself. This comes as Republican-led committees in the House and Senate say they’ll hold oversight hearings to investigate the Pentagon’s attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, following a Washington Post report alleging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of all crew members on an alleged drug vessel, including the survivors of an initial strike. According to the Post, Secretary Hegseth ordered the killing of two people as they clung to the smoldering wreckage of their boat after the first attack, off the coast of Trinidad, on September 2. A source told the Post, “The order was to kill everybody.” Under international law, it’s a war crime to refuse to spare the lives of people who are attempting to surrender or otherwise unable to fight. Human rights groups, meanwhile, have condemned all of the Pentagon’s attacks on boats as war crimes. On Sunday, President Trump denied Hegseth gave an order to kill everyone aboard the vessel, but later in the evening, Hegseth contradicted Trump’s denial, posting a meme on social media depicting the children’s cartoon character Franklin the Turtle opening fire from a helicopter on boats below. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez called on other oil-producing states in OPEC to oppose any U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Vice President Delcy Rodríguez: “Venezuela formally denounces, before this body, that the government of the United States of America intends to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the largest on the planet, through the use of lethal military force against the territory, the people and the institutions of the country.”