John,
Congress has authorized no war against Venezuela, Colombia, or any Caribbean nation. Yet the Trump administration has unleashed lethal military force against civilian boats in the region, killing at least 105 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September.
When the United States uses drones and airpower to destroy civilian vessels outside an active, congressionally authorized conflict, Congress has both the constitutional authority and the legal obligation to intervene. These killings demand immediate oversight to determine whether any crimes -- including murder or war crimes -- have been committed, and if so, who bears responsibility at every level of command.
Under U.S. and international law, the military may not deliberately target civilians or attack individuals who pose no imminent threat, even if they are suspected of criminal activity. Yet the administration has carried out at least two dozen drone strikes on small civilian boats alleged to be carrying narcotics, releasing only tightly edited video clips to justify the attacks.
In one early strike, footage shared by President Trump over social media (itself a strange way to convey such weighty information) omitted the fact that injured survivors clung to wreckage in the water for about 45 minutes before a follow-on strike killed them. Every vessel targeted was a civilian boat, and the public has been shown only what the administration chose to reveal.
Send a direct message to Congress demanding immediate oversight, full disclosure of all strike footage, and a halt to unauthorized military actions in the region.
Congress must now ask the unavoidable questions: Were these extrajudicial killings? Were defenseless survivors deliberately targeted? Were service members given unlawful orders? And is the Pentagon concealing evidence of additional crimes? Without full transparency, lawmakers cannot assess whether this unauthorized campaign violates the laws of war or the Constitution.
This is precisely why the Uniform Code of Military Justice exists: to define lawful and unlawful orders and the responsibilities of service members. The UCMJ is very clear that service members are not permitted to carry out illegal acts, including attacks on civilians or shipwrecked survivors. Blind obedience is not a defense.
If unlawful orders were issued, responsibility does not stop with the soldiers who gave or carried out the orders. Under the doctrine of Command Responsibility, it also travels up the chain of command, and outward to civilian leaders who authorized, enabled, or concealed the conduct.
Congress must assert its role now. It must demand a full accounting of what the administration is doing in the Caribbean and East Pacific, for what purpose, and under what claimed authority. It must require the Pentagon to release the complete video record of every strike, and resist any further military buildup or expansion of operations without Congressional approval.
Tell Congress to conduct full oversight, and to demand full disclosure of all boat strike footage immediately.
Thank you for insisting the American people have the right to know -- and Congress has the duty to find out.
– DFA AF Team
