USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. Photo: US Navy/file photo.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced a new “lethal kinetic strike” against a small boat in the Caribbean, the 20th of its kind to date. Although the announcement was made on Friday, November 14, it reportedly occurred on November 10, four days earlier. These “strikes” have been labeled as extrajudicial execution by the United Nations,
“At the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” reads the statement accompanying the video of the strike that the SOUTHCOM posted on social media.
It specified that the strike took place in international waters of the Caribbean Sea and confirmed four men were on board. It provided no names, exact location, details on the vessel’s cargo or any other evidence.
BREAKING: @Southcom has officially admitted to Extrajudicial Execution #20.
The Target: 24 small boats.
The Toll: 79 poor civilians assassinated.This confession comes after a 4-day delay. Crucially, the announcement did not come from Trump or Hegseth, but directly from… https://t.co/53SfQX3lhg
— Orinoco Tribune (@OrinocoTribune) November 14, 2025
The information was released four days after the event, and the notification was not made by Trump or Hegseth but by the SOUTHCOM. The US military repeated its pattern of blurring the video of the executed crew.
According to analysts, the delay may be attributed to the G7 summit held in Canada, where the US anticipated criticism from its junior partners, which it later received from the UK and France. The pattern of downgrading the chain of notification from President Trump initially to now just SOUTHCOM may hint at a realization of the legal implications the controversial military operations might entail.
This is the 20th extrajudicial execution by the US in the region since September 2, claiming the lives of 79 civilians across 22 small boats.
Operation Southern Spear
The US military escalation in the region assumed a new dimension Thursday when Hegseth announced the launch of Operation Southern Spear, allegedly aiming to get rid of “narco-terrorists from our hemisphere.”
In his statement, Hegseth referred to Latin America and the Caribbean as the United States’ “neighborhood.” This rhetoric reinvigorates the analysis that Trump’s strategy is a reloaded Monroe Doctrine aimed at securing control of the region’s natural resources and erasing any non-submissive government.
On Thursday, Secretary Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine briefed Trump on operational options. However, two sources told CBS News that the administration has not yet made a final decision on a possible attack against Venezuela.
If mainstream reports of 10,000 US troops already stationed near Venezuela are combined with the arrival this week of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest US aircraft carrier, to the Caribbean, the total number of US troops ready to attack Venezuela might be close to 15,000.
The absence of US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of State Marco Rubio from the discussions was notable, as Rubio was attending a G7 foreign ministers’ summit in Canada.
After the meeting, Trump said he has “sort of made up my mind” on whether to take military action against Venezuela, a move that would escalate an already tense situation after a two-month US killing spree in the region.
“I can’t tell you what it would be, but I’ve sort of made up my mind,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “We’ll see what happens. I mean, I can’t tell you what it is but we’ve made a lot of progress on Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in.” Trump continues to make this accusation against Venezuela although United Nations’ specialized agencies and other international organizations have reported for decades that Venezuela is a cocaine crop-free country and the transit of Colombian, Peruvian or Bolivian drugs to the US through Venezuela only represents 5% of the total quantity of drugs reaching the north.
“Drugs coming into our country are greatly slowed,” Trump said, while adding that the problem is not limited to Venezuela. “But we have a Mexico problem. We have a Colombia problem. We’re doing very well.”
Some experts consider this deployment the greatest threat posed by the US against a country since the first Gulf War. Other analysts compare it to the deployment before the US invasion of Panama, though the US then had 13,000 troops stationed in its military bases within Panama.
President Maduro Urges US People to Stop Their Government’s War on Venezuela
Provocation: US military drill in Trinidad
The government of Trinidad and Tobago announced on Friday new joint military exercises with the United States, adding more tension to the already delicate situation.
The information was released by the Trinidadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demonstrating, according to many analysts, the complete submission of its government to US regional destabilization plans, despite the fact that Trinidadian nationals are among the mortal victims of the US strikes.
According to the statement, Trinidad aims to fight narco-trafficking, thus embracing Washington’s narrative. It added that the military drills will be supported by helicopters from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit of the United States, infamous for carrying out lethal strikes in West Asia, Afghanistan, West Africa and the Balkans.
According to analysts, the timing of this drill indicates an imminent US military operation against Venezuela to fulfill its recurrently failed regime change dreams dating back to the early 2000s.
Meanwhile, Venezuela continues its Independence 200 military drill, which has been going on for two months. The exercises are mobilizing 200,000 troops, aircraft and naval resources to reinforce the country’s defense and readiness capabilities and safeguarding its sovereignty.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SC
