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“Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is running out of options to step down and leave his country under U.S.-guaranteed safe passage, following a short call with U.S. President Donald Trump last month where Trump refused a series of requests from the Venezuelan leader… The call, on November 21, came after months of increasing U.S. pressure on Venezuela…
“Maduro told Trump during the call he was willing to leave Venezuela provided he and his family members had full legal amnesty, including the removal of all U.S. sanctions and the end of a flagship case he faces before the International Criminal Court… Trump rejected most of his requests on the call, which lasted less than 15 minutes, but told Maduro he had a week to leave Venezuela for the destination of his choice alongside his family members.” Reuters
“US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he ‘did not personally see survivors’ before a deadly follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. An initial strike reportedly left two survivors clinging to the burning vessel, before a second strike was allegedly ordered that left them dead. The 2 September strike has prompted concerns that US forces may have violated laws governing armed conflict…
“The Washington Post first reported details about the second strike, which has led to concern from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. In response to a reporter's question during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth said that he watched the first strike ‘live’ but quickly moved on to another meeting… He added that he learned of Admiral Bradley's ‘correct decision’ to sink the boat ‘a couple of hours later’.” BBC
The left is skeptical of attempts to depose Maduro and argues that the September strike was a war crime.
“The US has amassed a fearsome array of assets off the shores of Venezuela: dozens of advanced fighter jets, thousands of troops, guided-missile destroyers, special operations forces, armed drones, gunships, possibly a nuclear submarine. More useful, however, would be a strategy… Air and missile strikes are far from guaranteed to drive out Maduro or prompt a coup. Sending in the Marines could lead to a quagmire…
“Even if Maduro did step down or was captured by US forces, there’s no guarantee any transition would be smooth. Political instability would create more space, not less, for cartels to expand. The White House needs to decide what its goals are… The longer US forces are engaged in pinprick attacks, the less intimidating they will be… The Pentagon’s most advanced assets should be focused on deterring a major conflict with a peer competitor such as China or Russia. The sooner they can return to that mission, the better.”
Editorial Board, Bloomberg
Regarding the September strike, “The Pentagon’s Law of War Manual is clear on attacking defenseless people. ‘Persons who have been rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck, such that they are no longer capable of fighting, are hors de combat,’ reads the guide using the French term for those out of combat. ‘Persons who have been incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck are in a helpless state, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack.’…
“This fundamental tenet stretches back to the 1863 ‘Lieber Code,’ the first modern codification of the laws of war, promulgated by President Abraham Lincoln, which held that anyone who ‘intentionally inflicts additional wounds on an enemy already wholly disabled, or kills such an enemy, or who orders or encourages soldiers to do so, shall suffer death, if duly convicted.’”
Nick Turse, The Intercept
“Hegseth has a long history of expressing contempt for the Geneva Conventions and the legal rules of engagement. In his 2024 book The War on Warriors, Hegseth questioned whether the U.S. military should abide by the Geneva Conventions. Hegseth argued that following the Geneva Conventions was like ‘fighting with one hand behind our back.’… In a September speech, Hegseth told a group of senior military leaders to ignore ‘stupid rules of engagement,’ which he called ‘overbearing.’”
Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims, Popular Information
“More than a decade ago, I asked a question that seemed fit for a Black Mirror episode: Who cannot be put on a president’s extrajudicial kill list?… At the time, some of us were concerned that the power would be abused both by Obama’s administration (which extrajudicially executed three US citizens) and by future presidents. Those concerns intensified after a federal court rubber-stamped Obama’s kill list…
“And after Obama’s spokesman brushed off the drone killing of an American teenager by saying he ‘should have [had] a far more responsible father.’ Fast forward to today, and the fears expressed more than a decade ago seem justified as President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth order extrajudicial murders on the high seas in the name of fighting the drug war (all while Trump pardons a drug trafficker convicted in a court of law)… Cheney and Obama enabled Trump’s extrajudicial killings.”
David Sirota, Jacobin Magazine
The right argues that the US should attempt to depose Maduro and is divided about the September strike.
The right argues that the US should attempt to depose Maduro and is divided about the September strike.
“Without question, the regime headed by Nicolás Maduro is a menace to ordinary Venezuelans (more than 8 million have fled the country’s dire shortages, roving gangs and general chaos) and to the whole hemisphere: It’s long been deeply intertwined with the Cartel de los Soles and other international criminal organizations, smuggling fentanyl and other deadly drugs; it hosts Chinese, Russian and Iranian assets, enabling espionage and other hemisphere-wide meddling; and of course the refugees its misrule has produced are a burden on its neighbors.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“Deposing Mr. Maduro is in the U.S. national interest given how he has spread refugees and mayhem in the region. No one should think this would be an American ‘coup.’ Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to elect the opposition in the 2024 presidential race, but Mr. Maduro refused to cede power. Deposing him in favor of the elected president would restore democracy…
“If Mr. Maduro flees and the democrats take over, it will be a giant step for freedom in the region. Would the Cuban people rise up against their dictators next? Mr. Trump would have his second foreign-policy victory after bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. But if Mr. Maduro refuses to leave, and Mr. Trump shrinks from acting to depose him, Mr. Trump and the credibility of the U.S. will be the losers. Mr. Trump chose this showdown, and it will cost America and the region dearly if Mr. Maduro emerges triumphant.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Regarding the September strike, “Tren de Aragua is an important cog in the vast drug smuggling business. A trade that is directly responsible for destabilizing societies, fueling extreme violence, and ruining countless lives. Considering the absolute inadequacy of law enforcement efforts to counter this threat, President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority and national interest to justify using lethal force against the cartels…
“When it comes to this boat strike, the available evidence suggests that [Hegseth] issued only one order to strike. And even if he had said ‘kill everybody,’ that directive should have been construed as an admittedly blustering way of stating his intent that the boat be targeted. Because the boat was struck just off the Venezuelan coast, the U.S. admiral who ordered the follow-up strike had a weak but legitimate argument that the survivors and cargo of the first strike could be rescued and thus deserved secondary targeting.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
Others argue, “According to the Post, Bradley at some point argued that ‘the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo.’ That is wrong… The incapacitated survivors simply may not be targeted unless, as Section 5.9 of the [DOD] Manual says, they affirmatively committed a ‘hostile act’ or ‘attempt[ed] to escape.’…
“Hegseth has emphasized that he wants to restore the ‘warrior ethos’ in the U.S. military. In the hours after the story, he signaled generic support for the boat strike campaign and chest-thumped that ‘We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.’ Yet the warrior ethos has always demanded honorable conduct in warfare… Surely the warrior ethos, whatever else it means, doesn’t require killing helpless men clinging to the burning wreckage of a blown-up boat.”
Jack Goldsmith, Substack
