Trump says the U.S. is repatriating survivors of the Caribbean attack to Colombia and Ecuador
US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the two survivors of Thursday’s strike in the Caribbean will be repatriated to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador, where they will face detention and prosecution, News.Az reports citing the Times Live.
The move, which was first reported by Reuters, means that the US military will not have to grapple with thorny legal issues surrounding military detention for suspected drug traffickers, whose alleged crimes do not fall neatly under the laws of war, legal experts say.
“The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Both men have arrived home, according to authorities from the two South American countries.
“We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on X on Saturday afternoon, providing no further information.
An Ecuadorean survivor arrived back in his country at about 11am local time, a government source who was not authorised to speak publicly said, and will later be legally processed.
Ecuador’s communications office and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US military staged a helicopter rescue for the survivors on Thursday after the strike on their semi-submersible vessel, suspected of trafficking illegal narcotics. The strike killed the other two crew members on board.
The US military flew the survivors to a US Navy warship in the Caribbean after the rescue.
In his social media post, Trump said, “US intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly fentanyl and other illegal narcotics.”
Trump did not provide any evidence, but did post a roughly 30-second video which appeared to show a semi-submersible vessel in the water before being hit by at least one projectile.
Speaking on Friday, Trump told reporters that the strike was against “a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs”.
The Trump administration has said the previous strikes killed 27 people, raising alarms among some legal experts and Democratic legislators, who question whether they adhere to the laws of war.
The strikes come against the backdrop of a US military build-up in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and about 6,500 troops as Trump escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.
On Wednesday, Trump disclosed he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro has denied any connection to drug smuggling and denounced the US boat strikes as a pretext for regime change, portraying them as violations of sovereignty and international law.
In a letter this week to the UN’s 15-member Security Council, seen by Reuters, Venezuela’s UN ambassador Samuel Moncada asked for a UN determination that the US strikes off its coast are illegal and to issue a statement backing Venezuela’s sovereignty.
News.Az
