this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
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Interior minister says ‘murder has been committed’ amid rising tensions over US military strike on boat in Caribbean

None of the 11 people killed in a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean last week were members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s interior minister has said, as the South American country deployed troops amid heightened tensions with the US.

The administration of Donald Trump has said the boat was transporting illegal narcotics, but has provided scant further information about the incident, even amid demands from members of the US Congress for a justification for the action.

“They openly confessed to killing 11 people,” the interior minister and ruling party head, Diosdado Cabello, said on state television. “We have done our investigations here in our country and there are the families of the disappeared people who want their relatives, and when we asked in the towns, none were from Tren de Aragua, none were drug traffickers.

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[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 36 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The thing with blowing them up instead of taking them into custody, is that there is no evidence to prove the allegations against them. They blew it up. If they really wanted to justify their actions, this was not the way.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We know they probably weren't just speedboat enthusiasts but blowing the boat up sets a precedent for extrajudicial killing without first establishing guilt.

Of course, this had nothing to do with justice, it was only about sending a very visual message to the other cartels that only US backed cartels are allowed.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

Given that Venezuela has chronic shortages of almost everything, these days...it's entirely possible they were smugglers. But they could have been smuggling anything from mail-order packages, to cash, or even medicine. We'll never know now.

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

....and the right says "well it was the liberals' fault so can you blame us??"

[–] FuckFascism@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Big fucking surprise.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 199 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Even if they WERE gang members, civilized nations do not shoot civilians.

They could have boarded the ship and detained them, but they chose violence.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 93 points 6 days ago (2 children)

They even admitted they could've interdicted the boat, but chose to kill them instead.

It was 100% absolutely, unquestionably a war crime.

And even if Trump is immune, the rest of those involved are NOT. Some of them are lawyering up, because war crimes can carry a death penalty.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Is it still a war crime without a war? I'm not trying to split hairs or justify the crime, just wondering about definitions. A quick search didn't really clarify it. Violation of international law, absolutely. And who would prosecute? I don't think the US has allowed itself to be subjugated to any international court.

[–] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

It technically may not even be a breach of international law, since the US is one of the few countries that did not ratify UNCLOS, the law that would apply in international waters. The US was evil for a long time and refused to sign anything that would hold them even symbolically accountable. This did not start with Trump. He just went mask off.

[–] icelimit@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Would this mean that the reverse is also true? Any 'war crimes' done on Americans aren't war crimes because they themselves don't recognise it?

We just need a bigger stick?

[–] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I would love to know as well, so I am slowly reading the UNCLOS treaty as I have time. We have no obligation towards US to not sink their ships, but we may have given promises to other parties of UNCLOS not to attack any ships, even those that did not sign.

It's like if your promise your wife you will be nice to your mother in law. You did not promise anything to your mother in law and she promised nothing to you, but you are still obligated to be nice to her unless your wife agrees to cancel the promise.

So I don't know if UNCLOS only deals with not sinking member ships or all ships.

Also, touching US ships is historically very dumb thing to do.

[–] krakenfury@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 6 days ago

You're correct, the ICC's jurisdiction has never been recognized by the US, or a bunch of other countries for that matter. They could still prosecute individuals and convict them, but the US wouldn't hand them over, and it's not likely that anyone would attempt to come get them.

There is a pretty large number of ICC fugatives from all over the world, notably Russian and Israeli officials. Afaik, France and the UK are the only two UN members with veto power that recognize the ICC's official jurisdiction.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Only one soldier ever faced consequences for the My Lai massacre and he only got three and a half years of house arrest, so it’s not like we care that much about war crimes anyway.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The only person in Washington talking sense about this is... Wait, let me double check. Uh, yea it's Rand Paul.

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 14 points 6 days ago

You know things are bad when the voice of reason is Rand Paul

[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

That Rand Paul is the voice of reason bodes very very badly.

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 44 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I know they're probably full of shit like any corrupt politicians, but it's nice to have them fight back. Even if they were convicted gang members, the US murdered all of them. I hope they spend the next few years fucking with this administration as much as possible. We need to get back to that place where locals fling shoes at our politicians, because we suck and need to back the fuck off.