Republican Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) raised concerns about the recent U.S. strike on a Venezuelan vessel, warning that such actions could set a dangerous precedent.
“You might ask the question, where does it end? Are we the world’s policemen? Are we going to be blowing people up off the coast all around the world?” Paul said in an interview with Newsmax.
“Is it really the constitutional duty of our government?” he added.
Paul’s comments were directed at President Donald Trump, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that it was the president himself who gave the order to destroy the vessel rather than send in troops to seize it.
“Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up,” Rubio said during a press conference in Mexico. “And it will happen again.”
Rubio explained that the Trump administration intends to “go on the offense” against drug cartels. He added that Trump is determined to use “the full power of America and the full might of the U.S. to take on and eradicate these drug cartels no matter where they’re operating from and no matter how long they’ve been able to act with impunity.”
Top officials, including the president, have emphasized that the strike was only the beginning and that more actions are expected.
When asked in the Oval Office why the 11 people on the vessel were killed instead of taken into custody, Trump defended the decision.
“On the boat you have massive amounts of drugs. We have tapes of them speaking about it. There are massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. You see bags of drugs all over the boat. A lot of other people won’t be doing it again after seeing that video,” Trump said.
He also accused Venezuela of fueling broader security problems. “We have to protect our country and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor. They’ve been sending millions of people into the country. Many of them are Tren de Aragua, some of the worst people anywhere in the world,” he said.
