On September 2, 2025, the U.S. military blew up a small boat in international waters near the Caribbean Sea, killing eleven people. Officials claimed the dead were members of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, but offered no proof. The U.S. could have intercepted the vessel, detained its crew, and presented evidence. Instead, it chose to destroy it. Afterward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio bragged: “On the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again.”
This was part of a larger buildup. Weeks before the strike, the U.S. government had started deploying Marines, warships, and even a nuclear-powered submarine to the Caribbean. Days later, Trump ordered F-35 jets to Puerto Rico and gave the military permission to shoot down Venezuelan planes. Step by step, the U.S. is normalizing open warfare in Latin America under the banner of the “war on drugs.”
The September 2 strike was a massacre. It had no basis in international law. But even if it were somehow legal, the real issue is political and moral: the U.S. government executed eleven people at sea, without trial, without evidence, without accountability. When pressed, Vice President JD Vance made the contempt plain: “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”
The U.S. government insists this is about fighting drugs. But that excuse has been used for decades to justify military control of the region. From the coups during the Cold War to today, it has always been about protecting U.S. power and access to resources.
This isn’t separate from our lives here. We are the ones paying for every warship and missile, while we are told there is no money for healthcare, schools, or affordable housing. Our struggles here are tied to the violence our government carries out abroad.
Workers here and in Latin America face the same enemy: a system that treats us as expendable. Their lives are taken with missiles, ours are drained through debt, low wages, insecurity, cops, and ICE. It is time to link our struggles and fight together against a system that thrives on war and exploitation.
