Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has expressed strong support for the United States’ military strike on a drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela, saying she has “no sympathy for traffickers” and that the US military should “kill them all violently.”
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. carried out the strike in the southern Caribbean against a vessel tied to the Tren de Aragua cartel.
“When you leave the room, you’ll see that we just, over the last few minutes, literally, shot a boat — a drug-carrying boat,” Trump told reporters during an unrelated Oval Office event, adding there were “a lot of drugs” on the vessel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the operation on X as a lethal strike against a vessel operated by a “designated narco-terrorist organization” that had departed from Venezuela. Trump said 11 people were killed in “international waters.”
“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Secretary of State Rubio later said that the drugs were “probably headed to Trinidad” or another Caribbean country.
In a WhatsApp message to CNC3 News, the Trinidad Prime Minister said, “I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission.
“Illegally trafficked drugs and arms have caused death and destruction in our society over the last twenty-five years. Our country has been ravaged by bloody violence and addiction because of the greed of the cartels. The slaughter of our people is fuelled by evil cartel traffickers. The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense.”
She added that restricting illegal guns, drugs, and human trafficking “will decrease the violence in the region and in particular our country,” and asked for divine protection for U.S. military personnel engaged in the interdiction mission.
“May god bless and protect the members of the US military who are engaged in the drug interdiction mission. Their efforts will save many lives in our country and the region,” she said.
