US launches Operation Southern Spear against narcoterrorists

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced a military operation that he said will target "narcoterrorists" in the Western Hemisphere. He named it Southern Spear.

"Led by a joint task force of Southern Spear and the United States Southern Command, this mission will eliminate narcoterrorists from our hemisphere and protect our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people," he wrote on the social network X.

The U.S. has carried out more than a dozen attacks on vessels off the Venezuelan coast and more recently in the eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing more than 70 people.

Some members of Congress, legal experts, foreign leaders and the families of those killed are demanding evidence that the ships targeted by the US were carrying drugs. The U.N. human rights commissioner has called the attacks a violation of international human rights law.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused Donald Trump of trying to overthrow his government. After the United States bolstered its military presence in the Caribbean, including a nuclear submarine and a group of warships escorting the world's largest aircraft carrier, Maduro beefed up security forces and deployed tens of thousands of troops across the country.

The US president accuses the Venezuelan of being the head of a drug cartel and has also put up a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

(reuters, max)