The Pentagon says it has blown up three more boats in the eastern Pacific, killing eight people. Black-and-white video posted to social media by U.S. Southern Command shows three vessels erupting in flames.
The Pentagon claimed, without any evidence whatsoever, that the boats were carrying drugs in international waters.
The latest strikes bring the Pentagon’s announced death toll to 95 since early September.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, and other rights groups have condemned the strikes as “murder” and state-sanctioned killings of civilians who were denied due process.
The attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday declaring fentanyl to be a “weapon of mass destruction.” Trump said: “No bomb does what this is doing. Two hundred to three hundred thousand people die every year, that we know of. So, we’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.”
Experts say that virtually no illicit fentanyl goes to the United States from either Colombia or Venezuela. And last year, the Center for Disease Controls, the CDC, reported about 48,000 deaths from synthetic opioids — not the 200,000 to 300,000 deaths claimed by Trump.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government has accused Trinidad and Tobago of participating in piracy, after it aided the U.S. government’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker last week.
Trinidad and Tobago officials said Monday they would grant U.S. forces access to the Caribbean nation’s airports in the coming weeks, as the Pentagon continues to build up forces ahead of a possible attack on Venezuela.
And on Capitol Hill, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are urging fellow House lawmakers to back resolutions seeking to prevent Trump from launching an unauthorized war on Venezuela.
[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]
