Welcome to the final edition for the Fall semester of The Fill From the Hill, a recurring political column where one University Times writer dissects the key political topics and controversies in the news, from domestic politics to international affairs. This week tackles the Department of War’s potential criminal charges regarding its strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean. Despite my position, this column is not representative or a reflection of the opinions of the UT Staff nor the UT itself.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has come under intense scrutiny following a Washington Post report that claims he gave an order to “kill them all,” in regards to two survivors who had survived an initial strike in the Caribbean during a Sept. 2 strike.
In early September, the Department of War, formerly the Department of Defense, began carrying out air strikes on fishing boats. They claimed that the boats were carrying drugs like fentanyl, with the intention of distributing them domestically. The U.S. government has alleged that the boats were owned and run by members of drug organizations like Tren de Aragua, which the executive order labels as TnA, and has been a primary focus of the administration. The operation has been running since then, and has expanded from the Caribbean to the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
At the time of writing, the U.S. has carried out strikes on over 20 boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and has killed upwards of 80 people.
Following an Executive Order signed after his inauguration, organizations like Tren de Aragua, as well as La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), were designated as foreign terrorist organizations. While this is within Trump’s powers as the Commander in Chief, any action taken against these groups must be authorized by Congress.
An example of such authorization can be seen in a similar situation that unfolded in 2001, following the Sept. 11 attacks. At that time, Congress passed an authorization for the use of military force, which is what allowed former President George W. Bush to carry out operations in the Middle East.
Critics of the president’s actions, including both Democrats and Republicans who chair the Armed Services Committee, have asked for further details regarding the actions taken, as well as a commitment to vigorous oversight of the Pentagon’s actions. Many have gone on the record and claimed that Hegseth should be brought to Capitol Hill to testify in front of the committee. The decision has also been examined, as during a strike on Oct. 16, there were two survivors who the administration said were repatriated to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador, respectively.
While Hegseth has claimed that these strikes are perfectly legal, they are potentially violations of both the Geneva Conventions, as well as U.S. law. The “double tap strike,” which is a secondary strike meant to inflict additional casualties after an initial hit has been brought into question, since it directly violates the Geneva Conventions’ rules of not targeting civilians, those who are wounded, or those who are hors de combat (meaning they are unable to fight back due to injuries.)
As the US has carried out these strikes over the past few months, the U.K. has stopped sharing intelligence regarding the Caribbean region with the U.S., out of fear its crimes may actually be illegal. Leaders in other Latin American countries like Colombia and Venezuela have denied the Trump administration’s claims and also denounced the strikes.
The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, as well as family members related to a Colombian man who was killed named Alejandro Carranza, have both said he was innocent and had no relation to drug trafficking nor gang activity. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has also brought up the fact that the Trump administration is trampling Venezuela’s sovereignty and has provided no proof that these boats were carrying drugs.
Among all this chaos, the leadership of the Department of War has undergone some significant shakeups. On Oct. 16, Vice Admiral Alvin Holsey resigned from his position, less than a year into his tenure.
On Dec. 1, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt officially confirmed that the U.S. had carried out such strikes, but claimed that the order had followed the chain of command. This means it would have been given out by the president, then by Hegseth, who had Admiral Frank Bradley carry out the order. The day before, the president had responded to a question on Air Force One regarding the strike by saying, “I don’t know anything about it.”
Now that the table has been set, let’s get into our views on the Department of War’s operations in the Caribbean.
Samuel Valencia: Whether Pete Hegseth is either a war criminal or a murderer, he should be locked up and forgotten about.
He should never have been confirmed by the Senate and most certainly should have been removed after that Signal chat debacle earlier this year. He has no experience in running an operation as big as the Department of Defense and is consistently embarrassing the security apparatus of the U.S.
His hair gel and finely pressed suits can’t defend him from the stream of mediocrity he serves up on a silver platter daily. But even then, it’s hard to say he’s the worst secretary in the administration. Seriously, it’s like Hegseth, Pam Bondi, and Kash Patel are all in competition for who can be the biggest idiot second to Trump.
The U.S. is not at war with Venezuela and is currently acting as judge, jury, and executioner for innocents in a region it has no dominion over. If they truly believe that the people they are killing are actually criminals, why can’t they show the proof? Trump clearly has no problem posting the actual videos of the strikes hitting their targets onto social media, so drop the receipts!
Just because the U.S. is not a signatory of the United Nations law of the sea, this does not mean they can just gallivant through the region sinking any ships they want. The military’s mission is to protect and defend the Constitution and the people of the U.S. against all enemies, foreign and domestic, yet they have failed to show us why we should believe that Venezuela is an enemy.
Americans are, rightfully so, sick of fighting against countries and people with whom they have no quarrel. We fought a fruitless war in the Middle East on and off for nearly 30 years, which completely devastated the region politically and socially, with nothing to show for it. We all know that we had no business over there, but somehow we have to protect the American people from Venezuelan boats?
It all circles back to Trump’s ego. He can’t let himself seem weak or ineffective in the face of the American people, or he’ll throw a tantrum online and expect everyone around him to fix it. Maybe President Maduro is a dictator who has an iron fist or maybe he isn’t, but that shouldn’t matter to the president who is “America First.” Shockingly, even Marjorie Taylor Greene understands this, and it’s a freezing day in hell when that woman is right about something.
Trump built his 2024 campaign on buzzwords like “inflation,” “the border,” “fentanyl,” and “the Epstein files,” but when he realized that he had to actually deliver on those promises, he shrugged and just figured everyone would forget. Luckily for him, most have, and still do, blindly follow him, but unluckily for all of us who are capable of critical thinking, we have to deal with the idea that our country is out there murdering innocent people in the name of “safety.”
As the Republican Party starts to realize that this lame duck of a president can’t hurt them after 2026, one has to hope that they will finally start to wake up to the reality that this menace to the office of the president cannot be allowed to run rampant across the world stage. America used to stand for something and didn’t just act on impulses of a deranged, aging leader, but that time has evidently passed.
To circle back to the main point, in a perfect world, we would see Hegseth thrown in jail so we could all forget about him. But despite the fact that there seems to be some general consensus in the government for once that what the administration is doing is wrong, I fear Hegseth will get away with this scot-free, just like everyone else who surrounds Trump.
