This Friday, the US armed forces eliminated another boat allegedly linked to drug trafficking structures in the Caribbean, near Venezuela, and three crew members died during the operation.
The operation was carried out in international waters of the Caribbean, which the Southern Command confirmed were “known drug trafficking routes.”according to a publication on his official X account.
With the death of these three people, during the operation carried out by the “Laza del Sur” Task Force, there are more than 110 deaths during United States military activities in the Caribbean and the Pacific, between August 2025 and the present. The Pentagon counts more than 37 attacks against suspicious vessels in international waters.
According to data from the Southern Command, until the end of January the death toll rises to 128 people – including confirmed deaths and missing persons presumably drowned at sea. Reports detail that 118 lost their lives during the bombings and another ten remain unaccounted for.
During this week, the Southern Command, under the orders of the new force commander, Francis Donovan, carried out three attacks, intensifying its operations in the area.
On Feb. 13, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known… pic.twitter.com/y50Pbtexfi
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) February 14, 2026
This latest operation is the fifth carried out after the capture of the former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduroarrested on January 3 in Caracas during a US operation and later transferred to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
The military action, which included the deployment of ships and aircraft in different areas of the Caribbean, is part of Washington’s growing effort to pressure the governments of Venezuela and Colombia in their offensive against the cartels, described by the White House as “narcoterrorists.”
The attacks near Venezuela on alleged boats linked to drug trafficking persist despite the fact that the United States has given its approval to the interim government of the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, in Venezuela.
During a speech given this Friday at the military base of Fort Braggin North Carolina, Trump praised the capture of Maduro and described it as a display of the military power and operational precision of US special forces.
According to him, the raid on the Fuerte Tiuna military complex in Caracas “was carried out literally in one minute” with several assault and transport helicopters. Both Maduro and the former first lady Cilia Flores They were transferred to a federal prison in New York, where they await trial on narcoterrorism and conspiracy charges.
The president also highlighted that the soldiers overcame the defenses of the Venezuelan regime despite strong security measures. “They had to go through steel doors; the steel was like paper mache,” he said, alluding to the ease with which American troops entered the facility.
In addition, he revealed the use of a secret weapons system called “decombobulator”, which – he said – neutralized Russian and Chinese defensive equipment deployed in Venezuela. “The Russian team didn’t work. The Chinese team didn’t work either. One day they will find out why,” Trump ironically said.
Along similar lines, during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the president defended the policy of attacks in the Caribbean and assured that the offensive made it possible to “stop almost 100% of the drugs entering by sea,” calling it a “necessary escalation” in what he described as an “armed conflict with the cartels.”