US lawmakers question Trump administration on Venezuela drug boats massacres

1.12.2025
US lawmakers are pressing the Trump administration for answers about military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, after a report alleged that a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors of an initial attack.
Republican-led committees overseeing the Pentagon have vowed to conduct “vigorous oversight” into the US boat strikes in the Caribbean, following the report.
Last Friday, The Washington Post reported that a US strike on a boat on 2 September left two survivors, but that a second attack was carried out to comply with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orders to “kill everybody” on board – raising fresh legality questions.
Hegseth decried the report as “fake news”.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said he believed his defence secretary “100%”.
In recent weeks, the US has expanded its military presence in the Caribbean and carried out a series of lethal strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in international waters off Venezuela and Colombia, as part of what it calls is an anti-narcotics operation.
More than 80 people have been killed since early September.
The Trump administration says it is acting in self-defence by destroying boats carrying illicit drugs to the US.
The Trump administration has sought to justify its operations in the Caribbean by saying it is in a non-international armed conflict with the alleged drug traffickers.
The rules of engagement in such armed conflicts – as set out in the Geneva Conventions – forbid the targeting of wounded participants, saying that those participants should instead by apprehended and cared for.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers appearing on US talk shows on Sunday said they supported congressional reviews of the boat strikes.
The leaders said they did not know whether The Washington Post’s report was true, but that attacking survivors of an initial missile strike presented major legal concerns.
“This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” said Democrat Senator Tim Kaine on CBS Face the Nation.
Republican lawmaker Mike Turner acknowledged that Congress did not have information that the follow-up strike had happened.
“Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Turner, a former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS.