US Strikes on ‘Venezuelan Drug Boats’: Are They Legal?

US officials say they have carried out a series of strikes on boats in the Caribbean, killing scores of drug traffickers.

Announcing the first of these in September, President Donald Trump said his forces had destroyed a vessel that had departed from Venezuela. He said the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua cartel and was transporting drugs to the US.

Similar reports have followed in recent weeks, accompanied by grainy footage but no evidence of the alleged drug trafficking and few details about who or what was aboard each ship.

Trump officials say they are acting in self-defense by destroying boats carrying illegal drugs to the US, but the strikes have drawn condemnation in the region.

In one instance, Colombia’s president said a boat struck by the US was not Venezuelan but “Colombian with Colombian citizens on board” – which the White House denied.

After the first strikes, BBC Verify spoke to a number of experts in international and maritime law, with several saying the US may have acted illegally in attacking the ship.

The U.S. has not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but U.S. military legal advisers previously said the U.S. must “act in a manner consistent with its provisions”.

Under the convention, parties agree not to interfere with vessels operating in international waters. There are limited exceptions to this that allow a state to seize a vessel, such as “hot pursuit” where a vessel is pursued from a state’s waters on the high seas.

“Force can be used to stop a boat, but generally these should be non-lethal measures,” said Prof Luke Moffett of Queen’s University Belfast.

Professor Moffett added that the use of aggressive tactics should be “reasonable and necessary in self-defense when there is an imminent threat of serious injury or loss of life to law enforcement officers”, noting that the US actions were likely to be “illegal under the law of the sea”.

Experts also question whether the killing of the alleged members of the Tren de Aragua cartel may violate international law on the use of force.

Under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, states may use force when attacked and deploy their military in self-defense. Trump previously accused the Tren de Aragua cartel of waging irregular hostilities against the U.S., and the State Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization.

After the first strike, Prof Michael Becker of Trinity College Dublin told BBC Verify that the US action was “stretching the meaning of the term beyond the breaking point”.

“The fact that US officials describe the individuals killed in the US strike as narco-terrorists does not make them legitimate military targets,” Prof Becker said. “The United States is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organization.

Professor Moffett added: “Designating anyone as a terrorist does not make them a legitimate target and allows states to circumvent international law.”

A leaked memo to the US Congress said the Trump administration had determined the US was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.

Responding to the fifth strike in October, Dame Mary Law School Professor Ellen O’Connell told BBC Verify that “no credible facts or legal principles have come to light to justify these attacks”.

“The only appropriate law for peace is international law – that is the law of treaties, human rights and statehood,” Prof O’Connell wrote in an emailed statement.

But US officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, defended the move, which was also applauded by Republicans in Congress.

Asked about the same strike, a White House official told BBC Verify that Trump authorized it after the boat left Venezuela with a crew of Tren de Aragua members. The official added that the president is committed to using all means to prevent drugs from reaching the United States.

The Pentagon declined to share the legal advice it received before the strike.

One attack, which took place on October 16, had two survivors, a Colombian and an Ecuadorian, who the US government said had been repatriated for “detention and prosecution”.

Questions have also been raised about whether the White House complied with US law in authorizing the strikes. The US constitution says that only Congress has the right to declare war.

However, Article II, which sets out the powers of the president, states that “the president shall be commander-in-chief of the army,” and some constitutional experts suggest that this gives the president the power to authorize strikes against military targets. Trump administration sources have previously cited the provision when defending US strikes against Iran.

But it is unclear whether this provision covers the use of force against non-state actors such as drug cartels.

Rumen Cholakov, an expert in US constitutional law at King’s College London, told BBC Verify that since 9/11 US presidents have relied on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Act 2001 (AUMF) when carrying out strikes against groups responsible for the attacks.

“Its scope has been expanded successively in successive administrations,” he added. “It’s not immediately obvious that drug cartels like the Tren de Aragua would be within the President’s AUMF powers, but that may be what ‘narco-terrorists’ is alluding to.”

Questions also remain about whether Trump has complied with the War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to “in every possible instance consult with Congress before committing the armed forces of the United States to military action.”

Although some congressional Republicans said they were worried about the strikes, the Senate rejected a resolution in October that would have required the Trump administration to seek congressional approval before further attacks.

Venezuela’s government reacted angrily to the strikes. Its president, Nicolás Maduro, denies US accusations that he is involved in drug trafficking.

The strikes come amid reports that the US has deployed naval vessels to the region to support anti-narcotics operations against Venezuela.

Using satellite imagery, social media imagery and information from publicly available vessel trackers, we identified 14 US warships in the region.

These include guided missile destroyers and amphibious assault ships.

We also found a number of military aircraft and drones in Puerto Rico.

Trump also acknowledged in October that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.

The president, who has long sought to oust Maduro, has offered a US$50 million reward for any information leading to his arrest. The Venezuelan leader swept to victory in last year’s election, which international observers considered rigged.

Additional reporting by Lucy Gilder