A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Some U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say at least one of President Trump's attacks against a boat in the Caribbean Sea may have been a war crime.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
So far, U.S. military forces have destroyed 21 boats that the administration says were trafficking drugs and killed 83 people without publicly releasing evidence that the boats were actually carrying drugs. Meanwhile, Venezuela is warning that the U.S. intends to invade the country and seize its oil reserves.
MARTÍNEZ: For more, we now go to John Otis, who is covering the story from neighboring Colombia. John, the U.N. says these American strikes violate international law. Some U.S. lawmakers now have raised the issue of war crimes, but there is no declaration of war against Venezuela.
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: Yeah. That's correct. There's no formal war between the two countries, but Trump has said that he's waging war against Venezuelan drug traffickers. And as you mention, U.S. forces have destroyed more than 20 alleged drug boats, killing more than 80 people. But The Washington Post reported that following one of the first strikes back in September, there were initially two survivors clinging to the boat wreckage. According to the post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order to kill everyone aboard alleged drug boats and that this order led to a second strike in which those survivors were killed. Here's Senator Tim Cain, a Democrat from Virginia, speaking on the CBS News program "Face The Nation."
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TIM KAINE: If that reporting is true, it's a clear violation of the DOD's own laws of war, as well as international laws about the way you treat people who are in that circumstance. And so this rises to the level of a war crime if it's true.
OTIS: Hegseth has called The Post report fake news. And Trump, speaking with reporters last night on Air Force One, backed him up. But the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have vowed to increase oversight of the boat strikes.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, President Trump has been warning airlines to steer clear of Venezuelan airspace. So what does that mean about a possible attack?
OTIS: Yeah. You know, ever since his first term, Trump has been pushing for regime change in Venezuela. Its president, Nicolas Maduro, has crushed the country's democracy and its economy, prompting about 8 million Venezuelans to flee overseas. Trump has also confirmed that he recently talked to Maduro on the phone, though he didn't provide any details. On Sunday, Venezuela's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, read a statement from Maduro claiming that this is all about oil.
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DELCY RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: Now, here she's saying Venezuela formally accuses the U.S. government of trying to take control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves. But experts say the 15,000 U.S. troops based on warships in the Caribbean are not enough to take control of Venezuela. Trump could instead order limited attacks on Venezuelan territory, or he might just stick to these boat strikes.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, John, while all this is happening, President Trump then suddenly announced that he has plans to pardon a former Honduran president who is convicted of drug trafficking. So why that? Why now?
OTIS: Yeah. The timing on this is quite strange, amid Trump's antinarcotics campaign and just before the Honduran presidential election that took place on Sunday. But Trump has also been quick to defend former presidents elsewhere in the world who get into legal hot water. Juan Orlando Hernandez is a former Honduran president who was sentenced last year in the U.S. to 45 years in prison for helping to traffic more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. Without providing any evidence, Trump claimed that Hernandez was, quote, set up by the Biden administration and that he deserves a full pardon.
MARTÍNEZ: That's John Otis reporting from the Colombian capital of Bogota. Thanks a lot, John.
OTIS: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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