What you need to know
Amid deadly attacks on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, President Donald Trump has vowed that his administration will continue to attack drug cartels on both land and sea, without a declaration of war from Congress.
On Thursday, October 23, President Trump spoke to reporters about the influx of illegal drugs into the United States, claiming that his administration’s actions have reduced illegal drug imports by sea to “less than 5%” of what they were before.
Now, President Trump says his administration will focus on drugs that enter the country by land.
“Next up is land,” President Trump said. “And we might go to the Senate, we might go to Congress and tell them that, but we can’t imagine they have any problem with that. In fact, if you go to Congress and tell them that while we’re here, what are they going to do? Say, ‘We don’t want to stop the flow of drugs.'”
As President Trump concluded his statement about launching a ground offensive against alleged cartel members, he said he was going to go to Congress and “tell them what we’re going to do,” and that lawmakers “all but the lunatics on the far left would probably like that.”
Asked by reporters why he wouldn’t ask Congress for a formal declaration of war, President Trump said, “I’m not necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill the people who are bringing drugs into our country. All right? We’re going to kill them, you know. They’re going to be like dead.”
According to CNN, the US military has carried out nine deadly attacks on vessels suspected of transporting drugs. At least 37 people were killed in the strike, the newspaper said.
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According to the BBC, legal experts have questioned President Trump’s authority to unilaterally engage in such attacks. The U.S. Constitution clearly states that only Congress has the power to declare war, and puts a check on the president’s role as supreme commander of the U.S. military.
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Some have expressed concern that Trump administration officials have provided little evidence that the people killed in these attacks were actually drug traffickers. The wife of Alejandro Carranza, a man killed while fishing off the coast of Colombia on Wednesday, October 22, denied any link to drug trafficking in an interview with AFP news agency, CBS News reported.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also said the Carranza was innocent and that his boat was sending out a distress call at the time of the attack, according to CBS News.
“Fisherman Alejandro Carranza has nothing to do with drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing,” Petro said in a statement posted in Spanish on his X account. “Columbia’s boat was adrift and had issued a distress call due to engine failure.”
According to CNN, Justice Department officials reportedly wrote a confidential memo providing legal justification for the strike. The brief reportedly asserts that the president would “authorize the use of deadly force against a wide range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans.” per outlet.
