President Donald Trump told Congress that the United States is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Trump sent a memorandum, obtained by the Washington Examiner on Thursday, to Congress declaring the cartels to be terrorist organizations and their members unlawful combatants.
It follows Trump’s authorization of several deadly military airstrikes in the Caribbean to take out suspected drug smuggling boats coming from Venezuela — strikes that have raised legal questions over the administration’s use of immediate lethal force to take out the suspected traffickers as opposed to intercepting the vessels and bringing the people on board back to the U.S. in the name of due process. The memorandum gives the administration’s legal rationale for the strikes.
“The President directed these actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations,” it reads.
The memorandum to congressional committees did not name any specific cartels with which the U.S. is in conflict.
“The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations,” it reads.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said of the memo, “As we have said many times, the President acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans.”
Kelly referred to a statement from a White House official that “a 1230 report is legally mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act following any incident in which the United States Armed Forces are involved in an attack or hostilities. This report was issued to Congress following the September 15 strike against a Designated Terrorist Organization. It does not convey any new information.”
TRUMP KEEPS DOOR OPEN TO MILITARY STRIKES INSIDE VENEZUELA — AND FIRING MILITARY BRASS
In August, the Pentagon deployed thousands of troops and several naval warships off the coast of Latin America to escalate its efforts in fighting the influence of drug cartels and criminal organizations, such as Tren de Aragua out of Venezuela.
Trump told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that his administration is going to “look very seriously at cartels coming by land.”
