“US President Donald Trump secretly signed a directive that allows direct military operations to be conducted against a number of Latin American drug cartels, which his administration classifies as foreign terrorist organizations.”, – WRITE: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: The New York Times
Details: According to sources, the Directive provides the Pentagon with an official legal basis for conducting direct military operations at sea and in the territory of foreign countries against cartels, which the US State Department has been classified as terrorist organizations.
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Literally: “However, the military assignment to fight illegal trade also raises legal issues, in particular, whether it is considered” murder “if US troops operating outside the armed conflict kill civilians – even suspected crimes – who do not pose a direct threat.”
Details: Since his return to power in January 2025, Trump has intensified drug trafficking measures: he unfolded the National Guard and regular troops on the southwestern border, obliged the State Department to classify cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and in February recognized as Tren Aragua, Mara Salvatruch.
Two weeks ago, the Venezuelan Cartel De Los Sols was added to the list, who, according to the United States, is headed by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and other high -ranking officials of his administration.
On Thursday, August 7, the Ministry of Justice and the State Department doubled up to $ 50 million a reward for information that will result in Maduro’s arrest. Prosecutor General Pem Bondi called him the head of the cartel and assured that he “would not avoid justice and would be held accountable for his disgusting crimes.”
Historically, US military involvement in the fight against drugs in Latin America has often gone beyond the law. Thus, in 1989, President George Bush Srish sent more than 20,000 military personnel to the Panama for the arrest of Manuel Noriege, who was accused of drug trafficking in the United States. Then the UN General Assembly condemned Panama’s actions as a “gross violation of international law.”
In the 1990s, the US military assisted the Columbia and Peruvian law enforcement agencies to fight drug trafficking, providing information about civilian planes suspected of transportation of drugs. But after the governments of these countries began to knock down such planes, the Clinton administration in 1994 stopped such cooperation for several months.