Since early September, President Trump has ordered the U.S. military to conduct multiple lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea suspected of drug trafficking, resulting in at least 21 deaths.
These unprecedented military actions raise critical questions about the identity of those targeted, the Administration’s legal justification, and the scope of presidential power to designate “terrorists” and authorize lethal force. What checks exist from Congress, courts, or the executive branch to limit such authority?
On this episode of the Just Security Podcast, cross-hosted with the Reiss Center on Law and Security, host Tess Bridgeman and co-host Rachel Goldbrenner are joined by experts Rebecca Ingber and Brian Finucane to analyze the facts, the law, and the broader implications of this military campaign in the Caribbean.
They examine an important new chapter in the use of force against drug cartels and explores how far presidential powers extend in such contexts.
Show Notes:
This is a joint podcast of Just Security and NYU Law School’s Reiss Center on Law and Security.
Executive branch reporting on the vessel strikes, on Tren de Aragua, and related resources:
- 48-Hour Report pursuant to the War Powers Resolution (September 4, 2025) (Note: For a living resource containing this and all other publicly available reports submitted pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since its enactment in 1973, see NYU Law’s Reiss Center on Law and Security’s War Powers Resolution Reporting Project)
- Notice to Congress Under 50 U.S.C. §1543a (Section 1230 of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act) (undated, made public October 2, 2025)
- National Intelligence Council, Venezuela: Examining Regime Ties to Tren de Aragua (April 7, 2025)
Listeners may also be interested in Just Security‘s Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes on Suspected Drug Traffickers (updated, Oct. 3, 2025), including:
- Mary B. McCord and Tess Bridgeman, What the Senate Judiciary Committee Should Ask A.G. Bondi on Drug Cartel Strikes (Oct. 3, 2025)
- Marty Lederman, Legal Flaws in the Trump Administration’s Notice to Congress on “Armed Conflict” with Drug Cartels (Oct. 3, 2025)
- Daniel Maurer, US Servicemembers’ Exposure to Criminal Liability for Lethal Strikes on Narcoterrorists (September 24, 2025)
- Ben Saul, The United States’ Dirty War on “Narco Terrorism” (September 22, 2025)
- Annie Shiel, John Ramming Chappell, Priyanka Motaparthy, Wells Dixon and Daphne Eviatar, Murder by Drone: The Legal and Moral Stakes of the Caribbean Strikes (September 17, 2025)
- Brian Finucane, Asserting a License to Kill: Why the Caribbean Strike is a Dangerous Departure from the “War on Terror (September 15, 2025)
- Marty Lederman, The Many Ways in Which the September 2 Caribbean Strike was Unlawful … and the Grave Line the Military Has Crossed (September 10, 2025)
- Michael Schmitt, Striking Drug Cartels Under the Jus ad Bellum and Law of Armed Conflict (September 10, 2025)
- Tess Bridgeman, Brian Finucane, Rebecca Ingber The Just Security Podcast: Murder on the High Seas? What You Need to Know about the U.S. Strike on the Caribbean Vessel (September 9, 2025, also available on YouTube)
- Mark Nevitt, Using Labels, Not Law, to Justify Lethal Force: Inside the Venezuelan Boat Strike (September 5, 2025)
- Brian Finucane, Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean (September 3, 2025)
The post The Just Security Podcast: Murder on the High Seas Part II — What We Know about U.S. Vessel Strikes One Month In appeared first on Just Security.
