The US struck a boat suspected of carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean, marking an expansion of the White House’s deadly military campaign aimed at curbing drug trafficking.
Tuesday night’s attack, the eighth such strike, killed two people, and comes as President Donald Trump “beats the drums of war for direct action in Venezuela,” The Washington Post wrote.
The operations mark a win for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio — whose aggressive stance won out over diplomatic alternatives — as well as Trump adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who sees the strikes as a way to expand the president’s power, reinforce a negative narrative of Venezuelans, and wage an “open-ended war on drugs and crime,” The New Yorker wrote.