Overview

• President Donald Trump said U.S. forces struck a small vessel near Venezuela, killing six suspected narcotics traffickers, and released monochrome footage of the missile hit.
• The strike was described as occurring in international waters with no U.S. casualties, and U.S. officials said intelligence linked the boat to designated narcoterrorist networks.
• This marks at least the fifth lethal maritime action in recent weeks, with multiple outlets reporting the cumulative death toll in these incidents has risen to about 27.
• In Caracas, authorities activated three additional Zonas Operativas de Defesa Integral in Nueva Esparta, Sucre and Delta Amacuro as part of a broader mobilization that includes training armed civilian militias.
• Human Rights Watch labeled the strikes as potential extrajudicial executions, the U.N. Security Council aired concerns over legality and civilian risk, and some U.S. lawmakers pressed for the administration’s legal and intelligence justifications amid a large U.S. naval deployment in the southern Caribbean.