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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that the U.S. military has “every authorization needed” to continue launching strikes in the Caribbean against vessels allegedly carrying illegal drugs near Venezuela, following a string of recent operations that have killed at least four people.
“We have every authorization needed. These are designated as foreign terrorist organizations,” Hegseth said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”
The comments came two days after a U.S. strike on a vessel just north of Venezuela, the fourth such attack in recent weeks. President Trump told Congress last week that the U.S. is in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, but offered no new legal justification for the operations. The administration has described the effort as part of its broader campaign to combat transnational criminal organizations.
“If you’re in our hemisphere, if you’re in the Caribbean, if you’re north of Venezuela and you want to traffic drugs to the United States, you are a legitimate target of the United States military,” Hegseth said during the interview.
Legal experts have questioned the use of the military instead of the U.S. Coast Guard, which is typically responsible for maritime law enforcement. Critics argue the strikes reflect Trump’s effort to test the limits of executive power in the name of national security.
Trump told reporters Sunday that the military’s recent actions had already made a significant impact. “There’s no drugs coming into the water,” he said. “And we’ll look at what phase two is.”
The Pentagon has not released details about the identities of those killed or the specific groups targeted in the strikes.
In a post on Truth Social last month, President Trump wrote: “This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics … The Strike resulted in 3 male terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this Strike.”
