KINETIC WAR: Trump Declares Drug Cartels Are ‘Unlawful Combatants’ and That the US Is in Armed Conflict With Them
The Caribbean war?
The United States has significantly escalated the scope of the conflict against the drug cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean.
President Donald J. Trump has shifted the National Security priorities, and is now deploying assets to secure its primary sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere, notably in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In this sense, the Trump administration has reportedly declared – in an internal memo – drug cartels to be ‘unlawful combatants’, further declaring the United States to be in ‘armed conflict’ with them.
This follows a large naval siege of Venezuela, and recent U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea.
Associated Press reported:
“The memo appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the United States amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force — a new rationale for past and future actions.
‘The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations’, the memo says. Trump directed the Pentagon to ‘conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict’.
‘The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations’, the memo says.”