US President Donald Trump faces a moment of tension within his own party. The dissemination of images about the events that occurred on September 2 has placed his administration at the center of the controversy.
On September 2 of this year, the US armed forces They attacked a crew that was in the Caribbean Sea and that he allegedly operated in drug trafficking.
The video shows how two people who had survived the first attack clung to the remains of the boat. When these people were discovered alive, the Special Operations commander, who was supervising the operation, ordered a second attack in which both survivors died.
Republican-led committees in the Senate and House of Representatives say they will expand their scrutiny of the Pentagon after a report was released in the Washington Post which revealed that the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsethwas the one in charge of the operation, proceeding to give a oral order to kill all members of the crew on board the vessel.
“I am alarmed by the number of vessels that this Government has dismantled without even consulting Congress,” declared the r.Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean a CNN this week.
“Either way, they are breaking the law,” he declared. Sarah Harrisonformer associate general counsel at the Pentagon and now a senior analyst at the Crisis Group think tank. “They are killing civilians, and if they are assumed to be combatants, it is also illegal: according to the law of armed conflict, if someone is out of combat and can no longer fight, they must be treated humanely.”
After the publication of this report, Hegseth shared a statement on his X social network in which he stated that “these highly effective attacks are designed to be lethal and kinetic,” ensuring that “every trafficker we kill is affiliated with Terrorist Organization assigned”.
Hegseth has described the newspaper’s information as “fake news,” a recurring expression in the White House to refer to negative information. But this time he will have to explain to the committee about the alleged attack described by Democratic legislators as a “war crime.”
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are legal under both US and international law, and all of our actions comply with the law of armed conflict, and are approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, throughout the entire chain of command,” Hegseth concluded in his publication.
The Republican response
Last October the chairman of the Senate Armed Services CommitteeRepublican Roger Wicker, made public a letter – which had previously been sent to the Pentagon – together with Senator Jack Reed, in which they committed to carrying out “rigorous supervision” and requesting orders, recordings and legal bases related to the attacks.
In response to these requests, the Department of Defense warned, unusually, publicly that they had already exceeded the legal deadline for providing some of the materials.
He Whashington Post has reported from first-hand sources that in some closed-door briefings with legislators, the Pentagon would have refused to bring lawyers that could help clarify the facts and legally justify the attack committed.
Faced with this refusal, several members of Congress, including some Republicans, have shown their frustration at the lack of details provided.
Wicker, who represents Mississippi, has already shown willing to disagree with the Trump Administration. Last week he charged in an X message against Trump’s “so-called ‘peace plan’” for Ukraine, which largely favors Russia.
“Any guarantees given to Putin must not reward his malign behavior or undermine the security of the United States and its allies,” the Republican said.