On September 2, 2025, a Venezuelan boat headed for the United States was struck by a U.S. military missile. Since then, 17 additional ships have been bombed and an estimated 69 lives have been lost. The Trump Administration claimed that the missiles were launched due to the boat’s alleged possession of drugs en route to the U.S. Despite the fact that these attacks have been going on for the past two months, no evidence has been provided to substantiate these narcotics claims. Following the conflict, many questions have arisen, not just because of  the ethical questionability of the bombings, but also surrounding the true intentions of the attacks. Why is the Trump Administration bombing these ships? Is it truly to eliminate the possibility of drugs entering our country? 

Despite Venezuela only having a minor role in the importation of drugs to the United States, the Trump Administration has stood firm on their claim that the boats contained drugs en route to the United States, and would have a severely negative impact on the country. 

 Apparently, the Trump administration just expects us to blindly trust in the claims that they make. This is a difficult task, especially considering that Trump has made many false claims in the past regarding the very same situation. In a speech to Navy soldiers on October 5, 2025, Trump boasted, “Every boat we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives,” If this statistic was true, sinking 5 ships would save nearly double the lives lost every year due to drug abuse, meaning that Trump’s claims were easily fact-checked wrong. However, this raises the question: what other claims made by the president in this address are also false?

So far, 76 people have been murdered by these attacks without evidence or approval from Congress. In an interview with CBS, Republican Senator Rand Paul concluded that, “All these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence.” Paul is not alone in his dissatisfaction. United Nations human rights experts have claimed that the US is violating international laws and their strikes against Venezuelan boats amount to “extra-judicial killings.” The country’s actions show a complete disregard for adhering to the 1945 vow promising to rule an equal and just society and assuring rights to all humans. 

With this in mind: what is the real goal behind the attacks against Venezuelan boats? 

James Story, a top US diplomat to Venezuela, shares his opinion. “President Trump has always been very concerned with the lack of democracy in [Venezuela], the human rights abuses that’s led to migration, and the criminality coming out of the country.” Story believes that Trump’s intentions behind the attacks are to scare Venezuelan elites close to President Maduro enough that they make a move to oust him. This is very different from past strategies implemented by Trump. In his first term, the president accused Maduro of stealing the election, and enacted sanctions on Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. These sanctions, according to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), caused a humanitarian crisis and an economic collapse. However, a new approach has arisen following the president’s second inauguration. Instead of claiming that Nicolás Maduro is illegitimate due to his alleged rigging of the 2024 election, Trump is making the accusation that Maduro is a drug lord. By labeling profit-driven crime groups as terrorist organizations and carrying out attacks on Venezuelan boats, he has continued his assault on Maduro. 

The estimated 18 boats bombed and 69 lives lost were not an attempt to stifle drug flow into the United States. The purpose behind the attacks was to scare Nicolás Maduro into leaving his position as president of Venezuela. Some believe that even if this is the case, the attacks are justified because of the role Maduro has had in the destabilizement of the Venezuelan economy, as well as his systematic human rights abuses. But does the end justify the means? Is it worth it to have 69 innocent people die in order to potentially scare Maduro enough that he resigns? At the moment, no change has been reported in leadership in Venezuela, making the lives lost and resources wasted needless.