Overview
- The Pentagon confirmed the carrier strike group’s arrival under U.S. Southern Command to detect, monitor and disrupt transnational criminal networks.
- President Nicolás Maduro signed a new law creating “comandos de defensa integral” and ordered large-scale exercises, with officials citing a mobilization of about 200,000 personnel.
- The U.S. Justice Department said lethal attacks on suspected drug vessels are lawful orders under the law of armed conflict and that personnel executing them cannot be prosecuted.
- Roughly 20 boats have been struck in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific with at least 76 deaths reported, while the U.N. human-rights chief urged an investigation, citing strong indications of extrajudicial executions.
- Russia’s foreign minister denied receiving any Venezuelan request for military aid, and CNN reported the U.K. withheld intelligence to avoid complicity in operations it considered potentially illegal.