Overview

• Speaking at the U.N., President Gustavo Petro condemned three September strikes and argued the people killed were poor young men rather than members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
• U.S. officials report the first strike on September 2 killed 11 people, with two subsequent strikes each killing three, while offering limited public evidence about the targets.
• Dominican authorities said they recovered roughly 2,200 pounds of cocaine from one of the boats hit by a U.S. airstrike.
• A White House spokesperson framed the operations as lawful actions against narcoterrorists, but an anonymous Pentagon official described the first strike as a criminal act.
• Experts and a former federal prosecutor say Caribbean smuggling crews are typically impoverished, unarmed fishermen and doubt the campaign will meaningfully disrupt trafficking or fentanyl flows.