According to the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1566 of October 2004, terrorists acts are “criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.” In July 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a secret directive to the Pentagon to use military force against Latin American drug cartels, with Venezuela squarely in his crosshairs, that he defined as terrorist organizations. Trump, by way of this directive, has rapidly built up the US naval military presence in the Caribbean. The Trump administration identified any possible drug traffickers as terrorists, akin to enemy combatants, and stated that they were fair game for the US military to attack.
On September 2, 2025, the Oval Office announced a military strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boat. 11 people on board were killed as a result of the attack and sinking. This marked the first time in US history that suspected drug traffickers were killed as a result of this new interpretation of the term terrorism. This attack’s legality is being questioned by many experts. In addition an unedited video of the strike was released, which revealed the boat had actually turned around once its captain spotted US surveillance and was heading back to Venezuela before it was attacked. Questions have also arisen as to why there were so many people on the boat – a drug trafficking vessel would typically have fewer. With the boat destroyed, there was no verified evidence of drugs on board. A long-held rule by the US military is not to attack civilians in international waters without either provocation or due process. Even if these Venezuelans may have been drug traffickers, they were civilians and did not meet the internationally accepted definition of terrorists.
In the last few weeks, there have been two additional boat attacks, killing a total of six more people. In a post on Truth Social, Trump again repeated his new definition of narcoterrorists as an existential threat to America. From a legal standpoint, Trump relied on the concept that drug traffickers kill Americans with their drugs, so he has the constitutional right to empower the US military to attack these groups as if they were terrorists endangering American lives. This unprecedented interpretation of international law and military action by a US president has sent shockwaves through the international community. Opponents of the narcoterrorist concept point out that drug traffickers, although clearly involved in illegal operations, have a primary goal of profit, and do not have any social or political objectives that would threaten American lives through forceful acts. The Trump administration has stayed on message in terms of its rationale for military aggression against Latin American drug trafficking. They have maintained, with their own absolute clarity, that so-called narcoterrorism needs to be addressed forcefully with the American military.
Source: Truth Social
Trump has increasingly expanded the use of the US military by executive order, which has bypassed Congress. Aside from this new expansion in the Caribbean, Trump has unleashed his military on US soil in cities like Washington, DC, and Portland, OR, in the name of law and order. Hand in hand with his military expansion, Trump has also redefined terrorism and who belongs to terrorist groups. These new assignments have not only included suspected drug cartels now designated as narcoterrorists, but also political movements in the US: Trump recently announced an Executive Order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Antifa, short for antifascist, is a political ideology that includes anarchists, socialists and communists, to name a few belief systems. However, there is no known organized hierarchy to the group, which makes designating it a “terrorist group” problematic to say the least. What actions may follow as a result of this executive order remains to be seen.
Source: White House
At the center of these Venezuelan boat attacks is the constantly evolving definition of terrorism by the Trump administration and the legality of US military action against newly defined enemy combatants. With Trump’s constant blurring of lines both nationally and internationally, one must wonder: what new definitions are on the horizon, and how will Trump utilize the US military in the future to address his ideology on threats to our nation?
