US First Lady Melania Trump and US President Donald Trump standing beside each other. Photo: AP/Evan Vucci.
By Steve Ellner – Dec 4, 2025
The Washington Post has reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave the order to not only blow up a boat in the Caribbean back on September 2, but to kill all the men in them. Hegseth at first refrained from publicly denying the statement, though the Trump administration did. The New York Times is reporting that the boat on September 2 was struck at least twice. Military norms prohibit a second strike on a vessel that has been neutralized or shipwrecked and no longer represents a military threat. That’s because once the military objective is achieved, a second strike means certain death for survivors. Given the gravity of the accusation, it is incumbent on the Secretary of War to provide details of the transcripts of the orders that were given and other specifics. Instead, Hegseth jokes about the incident.
Actually, that the Department of War was out to kill the alleged drug traffickers on September 2 should not be a matter of debate. Not if you consider Trump’s famous statement on October 23: “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.”
There is a consensus among experts on international law (excluding those in the Trump administration) that the bombings of the now 22 vessels in the Caribbean amount to extra-judicial killing without any legal justification. It’s not surprising that Hegseth did not go through legal channels. That’s because there is no such thing as “judicial killing.” No judge gives the order to kill someone and that’s basically what the second strike amounted to. Even if it were proven (which it hasn’t been) that the boats were carrying drugs, no judge would order killing the men on them. Indeed, “judicial killing” is an oxymoron.
International Condemnation Against US Theft of Venezuelan Oil Tanker Grows
Here is the statement in The New York Times’ article of November 29 titled “Trump Declares Venezuelan Airspace Closed:”
“On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that for the first strike, on Sept. 2, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to kill everyone on the boat. And CNN reported that after the military detected survivors, a second attack was carried out to kill them.”
“In September, The New York Times reported there were multiple strikes during the first operation. The Times also reported that the boat that was struck had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it.”
Democratic Party leaders beginning with Senate leader Chuck Schumer criticize the bombing of the boats on grounds that it represents an act of war and that the decision to go to war corresponds to Congress not the Executive. But Schumer’s statement falls far short of what needs to be said. The real issue is not legal but rather humanitarian. The Democrats need to center their critique on ethical and humanitarian grounds, not only legal ones.
(Steve Ellner’s Blog on Venezuela, Latin America and Beyond)
Steve Ellner
Steve Ellner is currently an Associate Managing Editor of Latin American Perspectives. He is a retired professor from the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela where he taught economic history and political science from 1977 to 2003. Among his more than a dozen books on Latin American politics and history is his soon-to-be released edited Latin America’s Pink Tide: Breakthroughs and Shortcomings (Rowman & Littlefield). He has published on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
