U.S. carrier in Caribbean amid Venezuela tensions and outcry over drug boat strikes

Geoff Bennett:

The U.S. military announced this week that the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier has reached Caribbean waters off South America's northern coast, part of the Trump administration's escalating pressure campaign on Venezuela and its broader effort to combat drug trafficking.

In recent months the U.S. has killed dozens of people it describes as narco-terrorists off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, prompting an outcry across the region from governments and human rights groups.

As Nick Schifrin reports, it's all part of the administration's increasingly aggressive approach to its relations with many countries across Latin America.

Nick Schifrin:

The world's largest aircraft carrier has arrived in the Caribbean with its strike group of more than 4,000 sailors, dozens of combat aircraft, warships, even submarines joining an already large deployment of ships, far more firepower than could ever be needed to continue the administration's campaign that's destroyed 19 fishing boats allegedly carrying drugs and killing at least 75.

This new war on drugs also designed to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Norah O’Donnell, CBS News Anchor:

On Venezuela in particular, are Maduro's days as president numbered?

President Donald Trump:

I would say yes. I think so, yes.

Nick Schifrin:

This week, Venezuela's military launched televised nationwide military exercises vowing a — quote — "armed struggle" against the U.S.

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuelan Defense Minister (through translator):

We are lovers of peace. We deeply love peace, but if they come to touch Venezuela, well, they will find us here a people determined to defend this homeland to the death.

Nick Schifrin:

The administration's stated goal is to prevent drugs from transiting through Central America to the United States. For that, the U.S. and Colombian militaries and intelligence services have long worked together.

But yesterday on X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote that Colombia would — quote — "suspend the sending of communications and other dealings with U.S. security agencies as Long as the missile attacks on boats in the Caribbean persist."

And I'm now joined by Juanita Goebertus Estrada, the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, who is also a former member of Congress and national security official in Colombia.

Thanks very much. Welcome to the "News Hour."

As I just mentioned, Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he has cut off military and intelligence sharing from the United States. So what's the significance of his saying this, assuming that he follows through?

Juanita Goebertus Estrada, Human Rights Watch:

This will have a very important, significant impact on the capacity of Colombia to combat different organized crime groups that operate within the country and that I have to say threaten civil society leaders, human rights defenders, environmental defenders.

They recruit children constantly. On the other hand, it is true that the different attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific are very clearly human rights violations. And it's understandable from that point of view that the Colombian government would cease to share intelligence.

Nick Schifrin:

Well, let me ask you about that.

The administration's defenders say interdiction, which has been historically the U.S. approach to these boats, has failed for decades. And the administration calls these traffickers — quote — "narco-terrorists," members of foreign terrorist organizations who represent imminent threats to Americans because they're delivering drugs.

What's your response to that?

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:

These are very clearly extrajudicial executions. These are organized crime groups, at best, who need to be defeated in a court of law. That's what a rule of law is meant to be, is that you collect evidence, you prosecute people.

You don't go executing people just on the assumption that they're criminals.

Nick Schifrin:

Let's switch to the Trump administration's immigration policy.

Earlier this year, in March and April, the U.S. very publicly deported about 250 Venezuelans to El Salvador, accusing them of being members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan organized crime group. They arrived at night shackled and were deposited into the notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement Prison, or CECOT.

Today, you released a new report about what happened next titled — quote — "You Have Arrived in Hell." What happened when they arrived in CECOT?

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:

They were welcomed by the guards that told them that they had arrived in hell. And they were day in and day out beaten with batons, with kicks, with their fists. Some of them were convulsing on the floor. Some of them threw up blood.

Some of them even reported choking on their own blood. This was systematic torture during the almost four months that they spent there. And the U.S. government knew very clearly where they were sending these people.

Nick Schifrin:

We saw a visit earlier this year from the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, into CECOT. Why do you say — or why are you so certain that the U.S., one, knew this torture was happening, and, two, had an obligation to know that, and therefore not send these people to this prison?

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:

There was significant reporting, including by Human Rights Watch, but also other organizations, showing that the penitentiary criminal justice system in El Salvador was constantly having these kinds of torture patterns, hundreds of people that have died in jail.

And then, most importantly, the U.S. paid the Salvadorian government $4.7 million to receive these people. So it was a very clear contract. That implies and it's our conclusion that, as a result of this, the U.S. Trump administration was complicit in acts of torture and acts of enforced disappearance of these Venezuelans.

Nick Schifrin:

I asked the White House today about your accusations, and this is the statement they sent me — quote — "President Trump is committed to keeping his promises to the American people by removing dangerous criminal and terrorist illegal aliens who pose a threat to the American public. PBS should spend their time and energy amplifying the stories of Angel parents whose innocent American children have tragically been murdered by vicious illegal aliens that President Trump is removing from the country."

Were these people — quote — "criminal and terrorist illegal aliens," the Venezuelans who were sent into this prison?

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:

They were not.

We checked criminal records from the U.S. at a national level in each one of the states. We checked criminal records in Venezuela and the different states throughout Latin America that they crossed, and only 3 percent had been convicted in the U.S. for violent crimes. It's a paradox that the response of the White House does not address the torture claims.

I assume they don't have anything to prove that they were not involved in torture.

Nick Schifrin:

Juanita Goebertus Estrada, thank you very much.

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:

Thank you for having me.