Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized the military’s strike on a Venezuelan drug boat, saying “even the worst people in our country” get trials.
The boat strike, announced by President Donald Trump Tuesday, killed 11 people associated with the Tren de Aragua organized crime group in the Southern Caribbean.
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Paul suggested the drug boat’s occupants should have been given a chance to be tried for their crimes.
“The reason we have trials and we don’t automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator?” Paul said.
Rand Paul: "The reason we have trials and we don't automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator? … off our coast it isn't our policy just to blow people up … even the worst people in our country, if we… pic.twitter.com/UpKVFAy5XU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 3, 2025
Paul said it isn’t “our policy” to “blow people up” on the United States’ coast. He added, “even the worst people in our country, if we accuse somebody of a terrible crime, they still get a trial.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the strike on Tuesday, saying they “conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump suggested the strike was to put fear into the hearts of drug dealers. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
The administration says that Venezuela’s government enables drug dealers and traffickers. They deny that, as their Foreign Minister Yvan Gil called Attorney General Pam Bondi’s move to raise the award for President Nicolas Maduro’s arrest as “pathetic” and a “crude political propaganda operation.”
Maduro was charged with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking in a U.S. federal court in 2020. The U.S. has not said whether it will strike Venezuela directly.
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The U.S. recently boosted its military presence near Venezuela, deploying three warships to the coast of the country to combat drug cartels. Venezuela reacted negatively to the deployment.
Maduro called the ships an “extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat” and moved his forces to the country’s coastline to defend against a potential American attack.
Trump directed the military to target Latin American cartels last month.