U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a joint news conference with South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-bak after the 57th Defense Consultative Meeting at the Department of Defense in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
Lee Jin Man/AP
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Lee Jin Man/AP
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced another deadly strike on a ship accused of carrying drugs in the Eastern Pacific, on the same day an aircraft carrier began heading to the region as part of a new expansion of military firepower.
Tuesday's attack killed two people aboard the vessel, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration's campaign in South American waters to at least 66 in at least 16 strikes, Hegseth said.
President Donald Trump justified the strikes by saying the United States was in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming the boats were operated by foreign terrorist organizations. The administration did not provide evidence or more detailed information.
“We will find and dismantle EVERY vessel with the intent to smuggle drugs into America to poison our citizens,” Hegseth wrote during a trip to Asia.
Lawmakers from both parties have pressed the Trump administration for more information about who is being targeted and the legal justification for the strikes, given that Congress has not authorized military action. UN human rights chief Volker Türk last week called on the US to stop the attacks and “prevent extrajudicial killings of people on board these boats”.
The latest strike comes as the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford leaves the Mediterranean for the Caribbean after Hegseth ordered it to the region more than a week ago. It will join an already massive buildup of U.S. aircraft, ships and thousands of troops in Latin America.
A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ships' movements, confirmed that the Ford and the destroyer USS Bainbridge crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic on Tuesday.
Ford initially fielded five destroyers, but it is unclear whether all of them will sail to the Caribbean. The other two destroyers in Ford's strike group, Winston Churchill and Mahan, are currently in the Mediterranean, while Mahan is in port at Rota, Spain.
Two other destroyers, USS Forrest Sherman and USS Mitchener, are in the Red Sea, the official said.
As strikes widen and military power increases in the region, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces drug-terrorism charges in the United States, said the US government is “fabricating” a war against him.
During an interview that aired Sunday on CBS's “60 Minutes,” Trump was asked whether the United States was going to war with Venezuela. He replied: “I doubt it. I don't think so. But we were treated very badly, and not just because of the drugs.”
Norah O'Donnell also asked Trump in an interview Friday whether Maduro's days were numbered.
“I would say yes. I think so,” the president said. Trump has not said whether he would order ground strikes in Venezuela.
In the latest strike video posted by Hegseth on social media, there is a gray rectangle hiding a boat that appears in the water before it is blown up. The footage then cuts to a ship engulfed in flames.
