After a series of strikes on nonmilitary vessels in international waters, the Pentagon informed Congress it considers suspected members of Venezuelan gangs to be ‘unlawful combatants,’ and America is engaged in ‘non-international armed conflict’ with them – without specifying which entities this covers. Trump has also authorised the CIA to conduct lethal covert action in Venezuela and positioned US armed forces off the Venezuelan coast. Confronting violent criminal organisations is a legitimate aim, but the administration’s case is internally inconsistent, its target is amorphous and there is no clear end-state. The White House starts this military adventure on weak footing, reviving the previously metaphorical War on Drugs and infusing it with tactics borrowed from the much more literal War on Terror. Aggregating extraordinary legal authorities to pursue a vague threat with no limiting principle is a dangerous approach which may ultimately prove self-defeating.
Trump’s Strategy Against Venezuelan Gangs is Self-Defeating | Royal United Services Institute
