Trump says the US is at battle with drug cartels: What to know

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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is claiming that the US is engaged in an “armed battle” with drug cartels, after it killed at the least 17 individuals aboard alleged drug boats final month.

What occurred? The Trump administration despatched a letter, first reported by the New York Times , to a number of congressional committees this week that described drug cartels as “nonstate armed teams” engaged in “an armed assault towards the US,” and mentioned the US was in a “noninternational armed battle” towards them.

In such a battle, the administration would have wartime powers to kill and detain cartel members with impunity — powers it's already exercising.

What’s the context? The Trump administration has ramped up its rhetoric — and actions — towards drug cartels since January, when it designated the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a international terrorist group.

In September, the administration struck what it described as three “drug boats” affiliated with Tren de Aragua within the Caribbean, killing the occupants; this week’s “armed battle” designation seems to be an try and reverse engineer a justification for these strikes.

So is the US actually at battle with the cartels? Not by any affordable definition; “armed battle” means one thing particular beneath worldwide legislation, and it’s not what’s occurring within the Caribbean proper now.

This isn’t the primary time the administration has tried to argue the US is at battle with a cartel, nonetheless; in March, Trump tried to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans immigrants it claimed had been affiliated with Tren de Aragua, solely to be slapped down in courtroom (litigation within the case remains to be ongoing).

What’s the massive image? Trump is trying to develop the boundaries of what he can and can't do with the US navy in a number of instructions. Earlier this week, he additionally prompt that US cities might turn out to be “coaching grounds” for the navy.