national security

US Boat Strike Death Toll Reaches 238 a Year After the First Attack, With Maduro Awaiting Trial in New York

On 4 October a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean killed four people the administration described as drug traffickers. It was the first strike in 15 days and brought the total killed since September 2025 to 238, according to a USNI News count. By early September there had been at least 68 strikes. Most in 2026 have been in the eastern Pacific.

The campaign began on 2 September 2025 with a strike that killed 11. Thirteen months on, its legal basis still rests on an administration position that Congress has argued over and never voted to endorse.

In October 2025 the administration told Congress the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, which it had designated as foreign terrorist organisations, and that their members are “unlawful combatants.” In November the Justice Department said the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day clock didn’t apply because the strikes used unmanned systems and put no US forces at risk. The legal opinion behind that position hasn’t been published.

Critics, including some former military lawyers, say drug trafficking isn’t armed attack and that killing suspects without trial isn’t law enforcement or war. The first strike drew particular scrutiny because a second attack killed two survivors. The commander who ordered it told lawmakers there was no order to kill everyone. The head of US Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, retired early in October 2025.

Congress came close

Votes to stop the strikes or bar force against Venezuela failed by narrow margins:

  • In the Senate, resolutions failed 48 to 51 in October 2025 and 49 to 51 in November.
  • In January 2026 a Senate resolution was discharged 52 to 47, then killed on a point of order after two Republicans switched, with Vice President Vance breaking a tie.
  • In the House, a Venezuela resolution failed 215 to 215 on 22 January.

Venezuela

Then the policy went further. On 3 January 2026 US forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas. Venezuela reported 47 of its soldiers killed; seven US troops were injured. Maduro has pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors rejected his claim of head-of-state immunity on 6 October; a hearing is set for 17 November, and trial for June 2027.

Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, became acting president, and the US now recognises her government. The US embassy in Caracas reopened in March, flights resumed in April, oil sanctions were lifted, and about 600 political prisoners were freed. No election date has been set.

Why it matters

The strikes continue after the government they were partly aimed at has fallen. That suggests the armed-conflict claim against cartels has become a standing authority, not a temporary one. Congress has the tools to end it, a joint resolution or a funding limit, and has fallen a vote or two short. Similar questions run through the votes on the war with Iran. A change in House control in November would bring hearings on the legal basis, and possibly the first release of the opinion behind it.