WATCH: Hegseth announces another boat strike as tensions build

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

Department of War Pete Hegseth announced another deadly military strike on a suspected drug boat as President Donald Trump warned Columbia to destroy the nation’s “killing fields.”

Trump and Hegseth have taken aim at Latin American amid rising tensions with leaders there over drug smuggling and other issues.

Hegseth announced a strike on Friday. As with past strikes on suspected drug boats in the region, the attack was announced on social media with few details.

Hegseth said the Oct. 17 strike was on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional, a designated terrorist organization.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth said on X.

On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.The… pic.twitter.com/1v7oR879LC— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 19, 2025

Hegseth said the strike killed three men.

“All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike,” he said.

The War secretary said the strikes on suspected drug traffickers will continue.

“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth said. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are – they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has been accused of consolidating power through fraudulent elections. In 2024, his reelection was widely condemned as illegitimate, with allegations of vote tampering and intimidation of opposition leaders. Maduro is also facing allegations of human rights abuses, corruption, and involvement in illegal narcotics trafficking. U.S. prosecutors have charged Maduro with running a drug cartel that allegedly uses cocaine trafficking as a tool to sustain the regime.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro previously called for a criminal investigation into Trump and other U.S. officials related to the military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. Petro recently proposed that Qatar could serve as a mediator to help stop the strikes.

Trump hit out at Petro’s policies.

“President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia. It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA. The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc.”

Trump said it was time to eradicate the cocaine fields in Columbia, the top cocaine-producing nation.

“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely,” the U.S. president said.

Trump and military officials have released few details about the growing number of strikes, but Trump has posted videos of at least four recent strikes. The Pentagon has not confirmed the number of strikes or their dates.

Trump’s use of military strikes on suspected drug boats marks a new strategy in the war on drugs. Previously, U.S. forces stopped suspect vessels, made arrests, and seized drugs.

In October, Trump told Congress that the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean.

“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” according to the confidential notice the administration sent to Congress. Trump directed the U.S. Department of War to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”

The Senate recently shut down a Democrat-led proposal this week that would have required Trump to get congressional approval before using the military to destroy suspected drug boats in the region.

Trump ordered military strikes on Sept. 2, Sept. 15, Sept. 19, Oct. 3, Oct. 14 and Oct. 17 on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.

The U.S. said the boat strikes resulted in 30 deaths.

After one of the U.S. strikes against a speedboat, agents from the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate and the Dominican Republic Navy seized 377 packages of suspected cocaine about 80 nautical miles south of Beata Island, Pedernales province.

On his second day in office in his second term, Trump issued an executive order designating Mexican cartels, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and Salvadoran La Mara Salvatrucha (known as MS-13), as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists under the U.S. Constitution, Immigration and Nationality Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment found that most U.S. cocaine is produced in Colombia and smuggled into the U.S.

“Colombia remains the primary source country for cocaine entering the United States, followed by Peru and Bolivia,” according to the report. “Mexico-based cartels obtain multi-ton cocaine shipments from South America and smuggle it via sea, air, or overland to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for subsequent movement into the United States.”