WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the two survivors of a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug-carrying submarine in the Caribbean will be repatriated to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia. The operation, which took place on Thursday, marked at least the sixth such strike since early September. Trump emphasized the significance of the mission in a social media post, stating, ‘It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route.’ He added that U.S. intelligence confirmed the vessel was laden with Fentanyl and other illegal narcotics. The strike resulted in the deaths of two individuals onboard, one more than previously reported, while the survivors are being sent back to their respective countries for detention and prosecution. This move sidesteps potential legal complications regarding the survivors’ status within the U.S. justice system. With this latest action, U.S. military operations in the region have now claimed at least 29 lives. Trump has justified these strikes by framing the U.S. as being in an ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels, invoking the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration in its post-9/11 war on terrorism. This approach treats suspected traffickers as enemy combatants in a conventional war.
US will send survivors of strike on suspected drug vessel back to Ecuador and Colombia, Trump says
