The Trump administration repatriates two survivors of a US
military strike on a suspected drug-running submarine in the Caribbean,
sparking debate over military detention.
According to Trump, the long-range attack claimed the lives of two more people, raising the total number of fatalities from recent attacks to 29.
“The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution,”
President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday, sharing a video of the attack.
“No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike.”
The survivors were reportedly rescued by the U.S. Navy after the strike on Thursday.
According to sources who spoke to The New York Times, a Navy search and rescue team was sent in, and the survivors were placed in custody aboard a Navy ship in international waters.
The United States faced difficult legal decisions regarding the detentions, including whether to send the survivors to military or criminal authorities for prosecution or to keep them as indefinite wartime captives.
The latter choice would expose the strikes to judicial scrutiny or reveal the planning details that have so far mostly remained hidden from the public.
The Trump administration's recent anti-drug campaign in the area, which the White House has controversially characterized as a formal armed combat against drug cartels, had claimed 27 lives before Thursday's strike.
The names of those killed have not been made public, and there has been little information provided regarding the intelligence the U.S. is employing to carry out these operations.
According to his relatives, Chad Joseph, 26, of Trinidad and Tobago, may have been one of six fatalities in a similar strike earlier this week.
In recent months, Joseph, a fisherman from Las Cuevas town, had been in Venezuela. According to his relatives, as a fisherman, he traveled around the Caribbean on a regular basis.
“I don’t want to believe that this is my child,”
his mother, Lenore Burnley, told The New York Times.
“Is this really true?”
Joseph’s family denies he is a drug trafficker.Congress, which has the only power to declare war and hasn't approved any further hostilities in support of the Caribbean operation, has criticized the strikes from both parties.
The White House claims the Trump administration is coordinating with drug gangs to assault Venezuela, and a handful of senators warned Friday they will force a vote to stop the attack.
The Department of Defense has announced that Admiral Alvin Hosley, who is in charge of U.S. Southern Command, which is in charge of the operations, will retire at the end of the year. Hosley apparently voiced concerns about the strikes.
Legal observers have warned the strikes may not be legal, despite the White House insisting the U.S. is formally engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that the president has labeled “unlawful combatants,” freeing up extraordinary wartime powers.
“All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple,”
Jeffrey Stein, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a recent statement.
“The public deserves to know how our government is justifying these attacks as lawful, and, given the stakes, immediate public scrutiny of its apparently radical theories is imperative.”
President Trump told reporters on Wednesday he has authorized CIA missions inside Venezuela as part of his anti-drug crackdown.
The president claimed Friday Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro has offered overtures to lessen tensions in the region.
"He has offered everything,”
Trump said, referring to Maduro.
“You know why? Because he doesn't want to f*** around with the United States.”
What legal reasons influence US decisions on detainee repatriation?
People captured during armed hostilities can either be
classified as enemy combatants or prisoners of war (POWs) under the Geneva
Conventions. POW status typically requires persons to be sent back to their
homeland at the end of hostilities unless they are being charged with a
crime.
The detention of combatants is only legally justified during
active hostilities to prevent them from returning to combat. If the
captured combatants are charged with a crime, to include terrorism or drug trafficking,
they may be prosecuted in the United States or a foreign country, depending on
the culpability and then cooperation with the foreign government.
International law allows for the detention and prosecution
of persons charged with crimes, relative to their capture, outside of the time
of serious, armed conflict. However, repatriation may not occur until
lawful procedures are finalized, to include any agreements with the receiving
country.