President Trump said Monday the U.S. had carried out a strike against a second boat he alleged was carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing at least three people on board. Trump made the announcement on social media and posted a video of an apparent airstrike, showing a speedboat erupting in flames. This follows a strike earlier this month on another boat also allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, which reportedly killed 11 people. Speaking to The New York Times, Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate, said, “Trump is normalizing what I consider to be an unlawful strike.” Here’s Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro speaking shortly before the second strike.
President Nicolás Maduro: “This is not tension; it is outright aggression — judicial aggression, when they criminalize us; political aggression, with their daily threatening statements; diplomatic aggression; and possible military aggression. Venezuela is empowered by international law to comprehensively confront this aggression. It is not tension; it is aggression.”