Why U.S. Strikes Against Drug Boats Matter

The United States has designated its operations against the Venezuelan narco-group Tren de Aragua as a "non-international armed conflict," justifying military strikes on alleged drug boats in international waters. This invocation of war powers, instead of law enforcement measures, creates a significant risk of escalating into an interstate war with Venezuela. Furthermore, it sets a dangerous precedent for other nations to pretextually invoke war powers against criminal threats. The threat posed by Tren de Aragua does not meet the "organization and intensity" test required under international law to be classified as an armed conflict, making the administration's justification an unsupported exaggeration.