Articles by Khamarie Rodriguez

Technology

7th US boat strike

The United States has confirmed a seventh strike in the southern Caribbean, killing three more alleged “narco-terrorists”, bringing the total death toll of the US military’s lethal boat strikes since September to 32. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted on his X account yesterday that on Friday, under the direction of US President Donald Trump, the Department of War conducted the strike on a vessel it claims is associated with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Colombian far-left guerrilla insurgency group. Hegseth claimed the vessel was known by US intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. The strike was conducted in international waters, he said. He compared the cartel to the militant terrorist organisation Al Qaeda, which he claimed uses violence, murder, and terrorism to impose its will, threatening the US’ national security. “The United States military will treat these organisations like the terrorists they are — they will be hunted and killed, just like Al Qaeda,” he said. Hegseth’s announcement comes shortly after Trump referred to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as an illegal drug leader and said that the US would be cutting its funding to that country. He claimed that Petro, who has publicly voiced his dissent for the US boat strikes in the Caribbean, was encouraging massive production of drugs in fields “all over Colombia.” “It has become the biggest business in Colombia by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long-term rip-off of America,” Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform. Trump said that as of Sunday, payments or subsidies would no longer be sent to Colombia, though he offered no further details on what these payments entailed. “The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc. Petro, a low-rated and very unpopular leader with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him — and it won’t be done nicely,” Trump wrote. Innocent man killed In a tweet on Saturday night, Petro referenced a Colombian media report claiming that the US had killed an innocent man in a previous boat strike. An RTVC report published on Saturday quotes the relative of 40-year-old fisherman Alejandro Carranza, who she says is one of more than 30 people killed in US boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea thus far. Carranza’s cousin, Autenis Manjarres, identified the vessel depicted in a September 15 strike confirmed by the US, which killed three. She said that family members had seen the footage and believed the vessel was Carranza’s, and that it was in distress at the time of the strike. “We are the descendants of fishing families, and well, he was there because he was a curious person, and he was there with the engines. They had broken down, and it’s just not fair that they were bombed like that. He was an innocent man who just went out to earn daily bread, so what we’re living through isn’t fair,” she said in the report. Of the report, Petro tweeted, “The USA has invaded national territory with a missile fired to kill a humble fisherman and has destroyed his family, his children… The USA offended the national territory of Colombia and killed an honest, hard-working Colombian.” On Saturday, Trump had also confirmed that a large drug-carrying submarine had been destroyed by the US military as part of its efforts to curb drug trafficking in the region, killing at least two. Two deemed by Trump as “narco-terrorists” survived the US strike — the first known survivors of lethal operations carried out by the US in the Caribbean Sea since September 2. Two others on board did not. One of the survivors, he claimed was being repatriated to Colombia, and the other to Ecuador, Petro condemns strikes Petro on Friday condemned the deaths of the two Las Cuevas fishermen and doubled down on previous claims that a Colombian had been killed in one of the US’ six confirmed boat strikes. While attending a public meeting at the Casa de Nariño in Colombia on Friday, Petro called the killings a war crime and an international aggression. “We already know that two fishermen in Trinidad Tobago were killed by a missile. This is a war crime. This is an international aggression against a zone of peace, the Caribbean. This It is an aggression against national sovereignty of the Latin American peoples…” he said. He added that if US officials were involved in the killing of a Colombian civilian, they should be tried in Colombia. One day prior in an interview with Colombian media RTVC Noticias, the official news programme of Colombia’s public media system, Petro had also mentioned the Trinidadians killed and pushed back on the US claim that its military presence in the Caribbean was part of a counter-trafficking effort. He claimed the US presence was centred on Venezuela’s oil and resource wealth and not combating drug trafficking in the region, as it has claimed. “This year we’ve seized 34 tonnes of cocaine and not a single death. The United States may have seized three tons and there are already 27 deaths—possibly Trinidadians, we know that; Colombians, we’re not sure yet; maybe Venezuelans. 27 dead for three tonnes, while Colombia has shown it can seize 34 tons without a single death. I think our total seizures are nearing a thousand tons. So obviously, this isn’t really about drugs. It’s about oil. That’s what I call the economy of death, the intensive use of oil.” Petro had previously called on Trinidad’s government to search for the bodies of the deceased in the aftermath of the first US strike on September 2 which killed 11.

Technology

T&T stands firm

Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs has reiterated the Government’s support for the US military intervention in the region. To date, an estimated 32 people have been killed in the US seven strikes on alleged drug vessels, among them two Trinidadians. In a media release yesterday, the ministry said the US operations were aimed at combating narco and human trafficking and transnational crime which it says would make the region a ‘true zone of peace’- a term which Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said was a false ideal when speaking at the UN General Assembly last month. The ministry said the Government affirms that these operations were not meant to target law-abiding citizens, fisherfolk and other seafaring individuals seeking to earn an honest living. “Alternatively, all persons who may seek to engage in, or indirectly support, any illegal activities in the Region, are warned that should they be so inclined, they do so at their own peril. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago reiterates its commitment to the people of the Caribbean for the creation of a safer, stronger and more prosperous Region,” the statement read. The Government’s response follows claims by relatives that two Trinidadian fishermen from Las Cuevas died in the fifth US boat strike last week which killed six in total. Relatives of 26-year-old Las Cuevas fisherman Chad ‘Charpo’ Joseph told the Express that they suspect he may have been one of two Trinidadians killed in one such strike. His relatives, alongside international human rights groups and critics within the US, have since questioned the strikes. ”Donald Trump (is) just destroying families, boy. He just destroyed families for no good reason,”Joseph’s cousin, Aficia Clement, told the Express on Thursday. The Prime Minister had previously welcomed the boat strikes, stating that US forces should kill all drug traffickers “violently”- a statement she stood by even as relatives criticised the strikes. On Saturday, Caricom issued a statement which stated that heads of government called for the Caribbean to remain a zone of peace — with the exception of Trinidad and Tobago, which reserved its position. The strikes September 2 President Donald Trump announced while speaking at the White House in September that on September 2 the US had blown up a boat coming out of Venezuela. A video, depicting a lethal strike on a vessel in the southern Caribbean, was later released by US officials, the White House confirming the killing 11 ‘narco-terrorists’ who it later designated as part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said that the military strike had been carried out earlier that morning (Tuesday) in the SOUTHCOM region on his orders. Tren de Aragua has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, operating under the control of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to the US government -it is responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America, beware! Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ wrote Trump. September 15 Trump claimed that three people had been killed by a US military strike on another Venezuelan vessel. On his Truth Social account he claimed that the operation had positively identified drug trafficking cartels. September 19 Trump posted on social media of another strike that had killed three people who were affiliated with a designated terrorist organisation. The US government confirmed that four people had been killed when its forces destroyed a boat allegedly involved in drug trafficking on the high seas not far from Venezuela. President Trump announced a strike in the Caribbean Sea which he said killed six. Trump said that this lethal kinetic strike was conducted under his standing authority by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on a vessel he alleged was affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organisation (DTO) conducting narco trafficking in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. The strike, he said, occurred just off the coast of Venezuela. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route,” he wrote on his Truthsocial platform. The US confirmed a seventh strike in the southern Caribbean, killing three more people it claims were “narco-terrorists”, bringing the total death toll of the US military’s lethal boat strikes since September to 32. On his X account on Sunday, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that his department had conducted the strike on a vessel it claimed was associated with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Colombian far-left guerrilla insurgency group. On Saturday, Trump confirmed that a large drug-carrying submarine had been destroyed by the US military as part of its efforts to curb drug trafficking in the region, killing at least two. Two deemed by Trump as “narco-terrorists” survived the US strike — the first known survivors of lethal operations carried out by the US in the Caribbean Sea since September 2. Two others on board did not.