It's obvious that Trump is targeting Venezuela for one thing above all else [View all]

Donald Trump’s justification for the killing of alleged drug smugglers on boats from Venezuela and his subsequent threat of invasion is nonsense – and dangerous in a world where international law means nothing, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley

Tuesday 18 November 2025 09:00 GMT

The United States has killed 90 people this year in “extrajudicial executions” – state-sponsored murders – largely targeting people on alleged smuggling boats from Venezuela.

Now Donald Trump has an American aircraft carrier group steaming through the Caribbean, threatening an invasion – based on lies.
The US justification for killing suspected drug smugglers is that they’re flooding America with deadly fentanyl.

Aside from the obvious legal issues; such as not firing warning shots at the smugglers, not arresting them (as has been the norm) and forever cutting the victims out of any due process of law, America’s justification for the killings is nonsense.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the US, and every other relevant source of information on the scourge of fentanyl in America, NONE of the deadly opiate comes from, or via, Venezuela.It gets to the US from Mexico – the precursor chemicals to make it come from China.

Mexicans aren’t being bombed. There’s no threat to invade Beijing.

In this new rogue order – that Trump did not invent but is amplifying – international law and ethics mean nothing. It is might that makes right in Trump’s book, and invasion, a form of real estate acquisition by other means.

He has notably hosted Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin on American soil and ignored international arrest warrants for the men who have both been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-venezuela-strikes-maduro-drugs-b2866621.html