US warship arrives in Trinidad and Tobago, near Venezuela
By AFP
October 26, 2025
The USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela - Copyright AFP MARTIN BERNETTI
Estelle PÉARD
A US warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ratcheted up pressure on drug traffickers and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The USS Gravely, whose upcoming arrival was announced Thursday by the Trinidadian government, docked in the capital, Port of Spain.
It is set to remain in the small Caribbean nation until Thursday, during which time a contingent of US Marines will conduct joint training with local defense forces.
The exercises are part of a mounting military campaign by US President Donald Trump against drug-trafficking organizations in Latin America, which has targeted Trump’s arch-foe Maduro in particular.
US forces have blown up at least 10 boats they claimed were smuggling narcotics, killing at least 43 people, and Trump has also threatened ground attacks on suspected cartels in Venezuela.
Maduro, a longtime Trump foe whose reelection last year was widely rejected as fraudulent, has accused the United States of “fabricating a war” aimed at toppling him.
The standoff escalated sharply on Friday, when the Pentagon ordered the deployment of the world’s biggest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, to the region.
Trump has also authorized CIA operations against Venezuela.
The standoff has pulled in Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, a sharp critic of the American strikes who was sanctioned by Washington on Friday for allegedly allowing drug trafficking to flourish.
Washington has accused both Maduro and Petro of being “narcoterrorists,” without providing any proof of the allegations.
In August, Washington deployed a fleet of eight US Navy ships, 10 F-35 warplanes and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region for anti-drug operations — the biggest military build-up in the area since the 1989 US invasion of Panama.
– ‘Getting a lash’ –
In Trinidad and Tobago, a laidback twin-island nation of 1.4 million people, some welcomed their government’s show of support for the US campaign but others worried about getting caught up in a conflict between Washington and Caracas.
“If anything should happen with Venezuela and America, we as people who live on the outskirts of it … could end up getting a lash any time,” 64-year-old Daniel Holder, a Rastafarian who wore a white turban, told AFP,
“I am against my country being part of this,” he added.
Victor Rojas, a 38-year-old carpenter who has been living in Trinidad and Tobago for the past eight years, said he was worried for his family back home.
“Venezuela is not in a position to weather an attack right now,” he said, referring to the country’s economic collapse under Maduro.
Trinidad and Tobago, which acts as a hub in the Caribbean drug trade, has itself been caught up in the US campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats.
Two Trinidadian men were killed in a strike on a vessel that set out from Venezuela in mid-October, according to their families.
The mother of one of the victims insisted he was a fisherman, not a drug trafficker.
Local authorities have not yet confirmed their deaths.
Venezuela vows to protect its coast from US covert ops
By AFP
October 25, 2025
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford will be part of Washington's expanded military presence - Copyright AFP Jaime REINA
Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Saturday the country is conducting military exercises to protect its coast against any potential “covert operations” as the United States expands its regional military presence.
The move comes a day after the Pentagon ordered the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group into the region, an escalation of the ongoing campaign of deadly attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats that have killed at least 43 people.
“We are conducting an exercise that began 72 hours ago, a coastal defense exercise… to protect ourselves not only from large-scale military threats but also to protect ourselves from drug trafficking, terrorist threats and covert operations that aim to destabilize the country internally,” Padrino said.
Tensions are mounting in the region with US President Donald Trump saying he has authorized CIA operations in Venezuela and that he is considering ground attacks against alleged drug cartels in the Caribbean country.
Since September 2, US forces have bombed 10 alleged drug boats with eight of the attacks occurring in the Caribbean.
The Republican leader accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug cartel, which Maduro denies.
Venezuelan state television showed images of military personnel deployed in nine coastal states and a member of Maduro’s civilian militia carrying a Russian Igla-S shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile.
“CIA is present not only in Venezuela but everywhere in the world,” Padrino said Friday. “They may deploy countless CIA-affiliated units in covert operations from any part of the nation, but any attempt will fail.”
Since August, Washington has deployed a fleet of eight US Navy ships, 10 F-35 warplanes and a nuclear-powered submarine for anti-drug operations, but Caracas maintains these maneuvers mask a plan to overthrow the Venezuelan government.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford will enter the region to join the fleet. The warship USS Gravely is also traveling to Trinidad and Tobago Sunday for five days of joint exercises.
By AFP
October 26, 2025
The USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela - Copyright AFP MARTIN BERNETTI
Estelle PÉARD
A US warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ratcheted up pressure on drug traffickers and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The USS Gravely, whose upcoming arrival was announced Thursday by the Trinidadian government, docked in the capital, Port of Spain.
It is set to remain in the small Caribbean nation until Thursday, during which time a contingent of US Marines will conduct joint training with local defense forces.
The exercises are part of a mounting military campaign by US President Donald Trump against drug-trafficking organizations in Latin America, which has targeted Trump’s arch-foe Maduro in particular.
US forces have blown up at least 10 boats they claimed were smuggling narcotics, killing at least 43 people, and Trump has also threatened ground attacks on suspected cartels in Venezuela.
Maduro, a longtime Trump foe whose reelection last year was widely rejected as fraudulent, has accused the United States of “fabricating a war” aimed at toppling him.
The standoff escalated sharply on Friday, when the Pentagon ordered the deployment of the world’s biggest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, to the region.
Trump has also authorized CIA operations against Venezuela.
The standoff has pulled in Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, a sharp critic of the American strikes who was sanctioned by Washington on Friday for allegedly allowing drug trafficking to flourish.
Washington has accused both Maduro and Petro of being “narcoterrorists,” without providing any proof of the allegations.
In August, Washington deployed a fleet of eight US Navy ships, 10 F-35 warplanes and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region for anti-drug operations — the biggest military build-up in the area since the 1989 US invasion of Panama.
– ‘Getting a lash’ –
In Trinidad and Tobago, a laidback twin-island nation of 1.4 million people, some welcomed their government’s show of support for the US campaign but others worried about getting caught up in a conflict between Washington and Caracas.
“If anything should happen with Venezuela and America, we as people who live on the outskirts of it … could end up getting a lash any time,” 64-year-old Daniel Holder, a Rastafarian who wore a white turban, told AFP,
“I am against my country being part of this,” he added.
Victor Rojas, a 38-year-old carpenter who has been living in Trinidad and Tobago for the past eight years, said he was worried for his family back home.
“Venezuela is not in a position to weather an attack right now,” he said, referring to the country’s economic collapse under Maduro.
Trinidad and Tobago, which acts as a hub in the Caribbean drug trade, has itself been caught up in the US campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats.
Two Trinidadian men were killed in a strike on a vessel that set out from Venezuela in mid-October, according to their families.
The mother of one of the victims insisted he was a fisherman, not a drug trafficker.
Local authorities have not yet confirmed their deaths.
Venezuela vows to protect its coast from US covert ops
By AFP
October 25, 2025
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford will be part of Washington's expanded military presence - Copyright AFP Jaime REINA
Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said Saturday the country is conducting military exercises to protect its coast against any potential “covert operations” as the United States expands its regional military presence.
The move comes a day after the Pentagon ordered the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group into the region, an escalation of the ongoing campaign of deadly attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats that have killed at least 43 people.
“We are conducting an exercise that began 72 hours ago, a coastal defense exercise… to protect ourselves not only from large-scale military threats but also to protect ourselves from drug trafficking, terrorist threats and covert operations that aim to destabilize the country internally,” Padrino said.
Tensions are mounting in the region with US President Donald Trump saying he has authorized CIA operations in Venezuela and that he is considering ground attacks against alleged drug cartels in the Caribbean country.
Since September 2, US forces have bombed 10 alleged drug boats with eight of the attacks occurring in the Caribbean.
The Republican leader accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug cartel, which Maduro denies.
Venezuelan state television showed images of military personnel deployed in nine coastal states and a member of Maduro’s civilian militia carrying a Russian Igla-S shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile.
“CIA is present not only in Venezuela but everywhere in the world,” Padrino said Friday. “They may deploy countless CIA-affiliated units in covert operations from any part of the nation, but any attempt will fail.”
Since August, Washington has deployed a fleet of eight US Navy ships, 10 F-35 warplanes and a nuclear-powered submarine for anti-drug operations, but Caracas maintains these maneuvers mask a plan to overthrow the Venezuelan government.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford will enter the region to join the fleet. The warship USS Gravely is also traveling to Trinidad and Tobago Sunday for five days of joint exercises.
Sabrina Haake
October 26, 2025
RAW STORY
Donald Trump has ordered more deadly bombings of small fishing boats, killing everyone onboard, including an incident off the coast of Colombia. That was the ninth US attack against alleged drug dealers in international waters, just since September.
Another strike was announced on Friday, bringing the number of people Trump calls “narco-terrorists” to have perished in these attacks up to 43.
Trump previously told Fox News, “We take them out,” and later joked about how people, most of them desperately poor, are now afraid to fish along certain coastlines.
Without releasing credible evidence, Trump claims the victims’ vessels were “stacked up with bags of white powder that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs, too.”
Trump says they were “smuggling a deadly weapon poisoning Americans,” on behalf of various “terrorist organizations.”
Trump is calling the victims terrorists so that he can treat them as enemy combatants in a war that does not exist, just as he is doing at home. Domestically, we know Trump calls groups who oppose him politically “domestic terrorists.” We know he fabricated a domestic terrorist organization he calls “Antifa” to sell his plan for violence. We also know his administration is lying about peaceful protestors threatening ICE agents in order to justify ICE brutality, and that ICE refuses to wear body cams without a court order.
Trump’s firehose of lies about domestic ‘terrorists’ won’t help his claims about ‘terrorists’ on the high seas.
Is Trump confusing South America with China and Mexico?
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has credibly accused Trump of murder. In response, instead of offering legal justification, Trump said he was cutting off foreign aid to Colombia, seemingly confusing that nation with Democratic-run states from whom he is also illegally withholding funds.
Bragging about the killings, Trump falsely claimed that every exploded shipping vessel “saves 25,000 American lives.”
In the factual world, about 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, mostly by fentanyl, which does not come from Venezuela, Colombia or any South American country.
The fentanyl killing Americans comes from labs in Mexico and China. Given his difficulty with geography, Trump may not know the difference. At any rate, South America produces marijuana and cocaine, not fentanyl. Most of the killing fentanyl is smuggled into the country by US citizens, over land.
Legal arguments don’t hold water
The White House claims the strikes are a matter of self-defense. To get there, Trump “determined” that drug cartels like Tren de Aragua are “terrorists.” But officials say Tren de Aragua is not operating in the shipping routes under attack, and that the route Trump and Hegseth are targeting carries cocaine and marijuana to Europe and Africa, not the US.
Legal experts on the use of armed force say Trump’s campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to target civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities. Key legal instruments prohibiting extrajudicial killings and murder include the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Statute of the International Criminal Court, and customary international humanitarian law. The Trump administration has not publicly offered a legal theory that comports with any of these laws.
Instead, the White House has argued that the attacks fall under the law of armed conflict (LOAC), which limits methods of warfare and sets out legally required protections for noncombatants and civilians during conflict. The US is in no such conflict; we are not under attack in the US or anywhere else, and Congress has declared no war.
Designating drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” is also factually suspect. Drug cartels exist for profit; all purveyors of illicit drugs are in the business to make money. In contrast, “terrorists” by definition are motivated by ideological goals often involving politics or religion—not profit. Even if they were terrorists, international law would only allow the executive branch to respond through legal methods like freezing assets, trials and imprisonment.
Hegseth and others will face court martial
Trump and Hegseth’s legal arguments have been universally rejected by military legal experts including former lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who have condemned the attacks as unlawful under both domestic and international law. Nevertheless, Hegseth has stated enthusiastically that the military will continue these executions.
In February, Hegseth fired the JAGs whose job was to assess the legality of military actions. He may have deliberately done so to engage in illegal conduct and later claim a “mistake of law” defense, but that maneuver won’t save him. In US Servicemembers’ Exposure to Criminal Liability for Lethal Strikes on Narcoterrorists, Just Security lays it out under the Manual for Courts-Martial, and Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), concluding in the Venezuela strikes that:
Despite the clear absence of an “imminent threat of death or serious injury” or “grave threat to life,” the U.S. Coast Guard did not interdict the alleged criminal narcotrafficking in the way this conduct has been historically (and recently) approached.
These suspected criminals were not arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced through a regular course of criminal procedure and neutral adjudication in a court. They were killed extrajudicially for conduct that could not be plausibly labeled a military attack, use of force, or even threat of imminent harm to anyone in the United States or any other nation, and despite the opportunity and ability to use less-than-lethal force to stop the boats.
An extrajudicial killing, premeditated and without justification or excuse and without the legal authority tied to an armed conflict, is properly called “murder.” And murder is still a crime for those in uniform who executed the strike even if their targets are dangerous criminals, and even if servicemembers were commanded to do so by their superiors, including the President of the United States.
Under this analysis, “every officer in the chain of command who … directed downward the initial order from the President or Secretary of Defense” would likely fall within the meaning of traditional accomplice liability, and could be charged for murder under Article 118.
Even if a corrupt Supreme Court gave Trump criminal immunity for murder (an unsettled question), someone should let Hegseth know that immunity does not extend to him, or to other service members piloting the drones or firing the missiles under orders that are obviously illegal.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.
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