"Trump justified the strikes by asserting that the United States was engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terror after the September 11 attacks in 2001. That includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force to take out their leadership."
"The president's use of overwhelming military force to combat the cartels, along with his authorization of covert action inside Venezuela, possibly to oust the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, stretches the bounds of international law, legal scholars say. The survivors of this strike now face an unclear future and legal landscape, including questions about whether they are now considered to be prisoners of war or defendants in a criminal case."
US forces seized survivors from a military strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean, the first such capture since recent US strikes began. The attack was at least the sixth strike in the waters off Venezuela since early September and the first to produce survivors recovered by the US military. The survivors are being held on a US navy vessel and their legal status is unclear. The strikes have killed at least 28 people. The president invoked wartime legal authority against drug cartels to justify the strikes. Legal experts and human rights groups say the actions may violate international law and human rights standards. The White House did not comment.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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