US military operations near Venezuela have been so successful in stopping the flow of drugs by sea that the naval force is taking a pause, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.
"We're stopping the drugs, we're striking the boats, we're defeating narcoterrorists," Hegseth said at a cabinet meeting chaired by President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. "We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now, which is the entire point."
Trump added that "drugs coming in by sea are down 91pc, and I don't know who the [other] 9pc is". Trump did not provide any details to back his claim.
Hegseth's comments could be a prelude to a declaration of victory that would allow the large US naval force deployed near Venezuela to disperse without taking direct military action against the country.
They also could be an attempt to shift attention from a high-profile debate about the legality of the US operations. Either way, the Trump administration is no closer to explaining what it is trying to achieve in Venezuela than when it began to amass naval ships, Marines and war planes in the Caribbean in early September.
As a legal rationale for the US naval operation, the administration has argued it is interdicting drug-laden boats allegedly launched from Venezuela. As the US force has grown in size, the Trump administration has hinted at possible land strikes against Venezuela or even an attempt at regime change in Caracas.
But the Trump administration has now been forced to defend the legality of its Caribbean operations.
The US naval force has reported lethal attacks on around 20 small boats in international waters near Venezuela since early September. The Pentagon initially said that the first boat it destroyed, on 2 September, carried drugs and 11 crew members, all of whom were killed by a missile strike.
But the White House confirmed on Monday that two crew members survived the first attack on that boat and were then killed in a subsequent missile strike. A group of retired US military lawyers said the second strike amounted to a war crime or murder.
Trump's administration is defending the 2 September strike as legally justified, while at the same time trying to shield Hegseth from responsibility.
Hegseth on Tuesday assigned full responsibility for it to Admiral Frank Bradley, who is in charge of US special forces' operations.
"I watched that first strike," Hegseth told reporters observing the Cabinet meeting. "As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn't stick around."
Then, "a couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the decision, which he had the complete authority to do," Hegseth said.
Bradley "made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat," Hegseth said. "I did not personally see survivors because the thing was on fire," he said. "There's this thing called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don't understand."
The armed services committees in the US Senate and the House of Representatives have vowed to investigate the circumstances of the 2 September boat attack.
Senators Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said on Tuesday they will try to advance a resolution blocking the use of military force against Venezuela.
Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro appears to be taking the threat of a US land attack seriously, asking fellow Opec members on Monday to help "stop this growing aggression".
Maduro made a brief televised appearance on Monday, after not speaking publicly for several days. He complained about enduring weeks of "psychological torture" from the US and shouted "Victory forever!" in English.
Trump said on 30 November that he had spoken with Maduro the preceding week, but he provided no details.
