Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said President Donald Trump‘s military strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug boats go “against all of our tradition.”
The U.S. military carried out a strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug vessel in international waters of the Caribbean on Thursday, leaving several survivors. As of mid-October, the U.S. military has carried out at least six strikes killing more than 20 people as part of Trump’s efforts to crack down on drug trafficking.
Paul said on Meet the Press on Sunday that these actions “go against all of our tradition” and added, “All these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.”
“So if our policy now is to blow up every ship we suspect or accuse of drug running, that would be a bizarre world in which 25% of people might be innocent,” Paul said.
The recent U.S. military strike escalated the administration’s efforts to target vessels transporting narcotics into the United States by sea.
Trump confirmed the strike on Saturday, stating on Truth Social, “It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route. U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics. There were four known narcoterrorists on board the vessel.”
The president on Wednesday said that he has also authorized the CIA to begin land-based operations against narcoterrorists based in Venezuela. He told reporters that he is “certainly looking at” the possibility of land strikes in Venezuela, “because we’ve got the sea under control.”
Paul criticized the president’s comments, stating, “I don’t know what his actual intentions are. I can say, though, that not being a master of spycraft, if you announce that you’re going to have covert CIA action, it’s no longer covert.”
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He added, “I do think there are members of his administration who have been agitating for war with Venezuela for a long, long period of time.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the Trump administration of attempting to overthrow his regime.