U.S. Secretary of Defense asserts that attacks against drug terrorists in the Caribbean are "effective and lethal."

The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, defended the lethality of military attacks in the Caribbean on Friday, just hours after The Washington Post and CNN published a shocking report stating that two survivors of a boat that had been bombed off the coast of Venezuela were allegedly executed by direct order from the Pentagon.

The revelation describes one of the most controversial episodes of the military operation that the Donald Trump administration is conducting in the region. According to sources cited by both outlets, eleven people were traveling in the boat that was attacked on September 2; the first missile almost completely destroyed it, but a drone detected minutes later that two men were still alive, clinging to the wreckage.

It was then that, according to these sources, the instruction to “kill everyone” arrived.

That second attack, carried out despite the fact that the survivors did not pose an immediate threat, is the most sensitive point of operations that are already facing legal scrutiny both within and outside the United States.

CNN recalls that the Trump administration had never previously admitted to having ended the lives of survivors following a bombing.

Hegseth, however, responded with a defiant message on the social media platform X. He accused the press of fabricating stories to “discredit” the military and claimed that the actions are “highly effective,” “specifically lethal,” and aimed at organizations that Washington labels as narco-terrorists.

He also reiterated that the attacks comply "with U.S. and international law" and have the approval of the legal advisors of the Department of Defense.

The firmness of the speech contrasts with the gravity of the journalistic report. If confirmed, the episode would set a significant precedent amid the military escalation that the United States is deploying in the Caribbean, with more than 7,000 troops, warships, combat aircraft, and increasing pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro, which Washington accuses of facilitating drug trafficking routes.

While the White House insists that its actions aim to prevent the entry of drugs that could “kill thousands of Americans,” the Venezuelan government denounces an aggression and warns that the deployment has political rather than anti-drug objectives.

Tension has turned the area into a hemisphere hot spot, but the human detail of the attack on September 2, two men who survived the initial strike and are said to have been executed from the air, is what is now shaking the official narrative.

For now, neither the Pentagon nor the Trump administration have provided concrete explanations about what happened with those two survivors. Hegseth, on the other hand, insists that he will "always" support the military personnel involved.