1 of 3 | The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney sails beside U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Northland in 2020. Northland and Pinckney are deployed to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility to support Joint Interagency Task Force South’s mission, which includes counter illicit drug trafficking in the Caribbean. File Photo by Specialist 3rd Class Erick A. Parsons/U.S. Navy
Oct. 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump last month notified several congressional committees that the United States is in armed conflict with drug cartels that he has designated as terrorist organizations.
The notice to relevant congressional committees described drug cartels as “unlawful combatants” and comes after the military struck alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean Sea last month, including two from Venezuela, according to ABC News.
Those strikes killed 17 people aboard the targeted boats.
“The president directed the Department of War to conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict,” the notice to congressional committees says, as reported by The Hill.
“The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations,” the notice says.
Trump issued the notice following a Sept. 15 strike that killed three in a vessel operated by a “designated terrorist organization,” Fox News reported.
The military strikes are “in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores,” Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, told Fox News.
“He is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans,” she added.
The notice to the congressional committees abides by federal law that requires presidential administrations to report attacks or hostilities that involve the U.S. military.
It also emphasizes the strikes are done in self-defense while “eliminating the threat posed by these designated terrorist organizations.”
The Trump administration views the drug cartels as engaging in an ongoing attack against the United States that involves arms, in addition to deadly drugs that kill tens of thousands of U.S. citizens every year.
The cartels are transnational in nature and engage in ongoing “attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere,” the notice says.
The military action against the alleged drug-running vessels has drawn criticism from congressional Democrats, who accuse the Trump administration of exceeding its constitutional authority.
Other critics say Venezuela has only a minor role in the trafficking of illicit drugs that reach the United States, and there has been no proof provided that the 17 people killed have been drug traffickers.