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The United States conducted another attack on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people aboard, the Pentagon said on Sunday.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” the US Southern Command announced in a post on social media.
The announcement said the boat was in international waters when it was struck by the Southern Spear joint taskforce. It did not give details on where the vessel was traveling from or what organization it was associated with.
The latest operation was the 21st known attack on drug boats by the US military since early September in what it has called a justified effort to disrupt the flow of narcotics into the United States.
The strikes have killed more than 80 people, according to Pentagon figures. Lawmakers in Congress, human rights groups and US allies have raised questions about the legality of the attacks.
The Trump administration has said it has the legal authority to carry out the strikes, with the justice department providing a legal opinion that justifies them and argues that US military personnel who carry out the operations are immune from prosecution. The administration also has not publicly explained the legal justification for the decision to attack the boats rather than stop them and arrest those on board.
The latest deadly strike came as the US navy announced its most advanced aircraft carrier had arrived in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday in a display of power that raised questions about what the new influx of troops and weaponry could signal for the Trump administration’s intentions in South America.
The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford and other warships rounds off the largest buildup of US firepower in the region in generations. With its arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear mission includes nearly a dozen navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and marines.
The carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the navy said.
Rear Adm Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the western hemisphere”.
Adm Alvin Holsey, the commander who oversees the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that the American forces “stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilize our region”.
Holsey, who will retire next month after just a year on the job, said the strike group’s deployment is “a critical step in reinforcing our resolve to protect the security of the western hemisphere and the safety of the American homeland”.
In Trinidad and Tobago, which is only 7 miles (11km) from Venezuela at its closest point, government officials said troops have begun “training exercises” with the US military that will run through much of the week.
Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of foreign affairs, Sean Sobers, described the joint exercises as the second in less than a month and said they are aimed at tackling violent crime on the island nation, which has become a stopover point for drug shipments headed to Europe and North America. The prime minister has been a vocal supporter of the US military strikes.
The exercises will include marines from the 22nd expeditionary unit, who have been stationed onboard the navy ships that have been looming off Venezuela’s coast for months.
Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression. It had no immediate comment on Sunday on the arrival of the aircraft carrier.
