By Alex Brandon,Khamarie Rodriguez

Copyright trinidadexpress

United States President Donald Trump announced yesterday that a second vessel leaving Venezuela was targeted and struck by the US military, killing at least three on board.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump said the strike had occurred in international waters and claimed that the persons killed were confirmed ‘narco-terrorists’, who had been transporting illegal narcotics headed to the US.

“These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels pose a threat to US national security, foreign policy, and vital US interests,” he wrote.

Asked about proof of the vessel’s occupants being drug traffickers during a White House news conference yesterday afternoon, Trump said that the proof was in the cargo that had been spattered all across the ocean.

“We have proof, all you have to do is look at the cargo…..big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place. We have recorded evidence that they were leaving. We are very careful…The military has been amazing,” he said.

He said he was shown a clip of the strike, where proof of the drugs was seen.

“We know what time they were leaving, when they were leaving, what they had,” he said.

He also said that the military had noted a lack of ships in the region since its naval build-up in the southern Caribbean first began.

“First when we went there were hundreds of boats, now there are no boats. I wonder why?…I think the fishing business is probably a little hurt. There are literally no boats, this was a boat and we were surprised to see it. That means there are no drugs coming by sea, but they do come by land, and we are telling the cartels right now, we are going to be stopping them too,” said Trump.

On September 2, Trump announced a similar strike which killed 11 men whom the White House alleged were part of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. The US has not yet identified the exact location of that strike or what was on board the vessel when it was destroyed.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier speculated that the vessel was headed to Trinidad and Tobago, but US officials later repeated Trump’s claims that it was headed to the US.

Venezuelan media previously reported that the first vessel was believed to have originated from San Juan de Unare, a coastal village just miles off Trinidad’s northern coast.

Just moments before Trump’s announcement yesterday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro referred to the previous strike as a ‘heinous crime’ while speaking at a news conference.

Speaking in Caracas, Maduro said that the strike had likely violated international law and questioned why the vessel’s passengers were not captured.

“This isn’t tension. It is an aggression all down the line, it’s a judicial aggression when they criminalise us, a political aggression with their daily threatening statements, a diplomatic aggression and an ongoing aggression of military character,” he said.

He also said that a previous line of communication between the US and Venezuela had been completely closed.

“The communications with the government of the US have been thrown away, they have been thrown away by them with their threats of bombs, death and blackmail,” Maduro said.