Back around 2012, off the coast of West Africa, a combination of lightly regulated traffic on international waters, poverty and weak governments ashore, led to a rash of acts of piracy against cargo, leisure and cruise lines on a wide array of sea vessels, operating under a broad cross-section of country flags.
Acts of violence and attacks on any seagoing vessel, more than 12-miles off of any coast or shoreline, sailing in international waters are considered acts of piracy. During 2020, in the Gulf of Guinea, near the horn of Africa, 180 crew members, seafarers and passengers were taken hostage and kidnapped for ransom, or in some cases tossed into the sea.
The pirates themselves came from a variety of African states. Though none were government or official naval sailors, they were heavily armed, often very violent. Initially after oil and other valuable cargo on board, they shifted their tactics to larger and larger ships, often staffed by small crews, to steal more and more valuable cargo, as well as often ransoming the crews back later to their shipping lines and companies.
Extreme poverty in parts of the continent of Africa, and particularly among Somalis made these crimes appear, at least to the perpetrators, as crimes of survival. Though down from the higher numbers of the 2010s, he problem still persists.
Which brings us to today and half a world away, and long troubled relations between the United States and Venezuela, and primarily its current leader, Nicolas Maduro. During a phone call from U.S. President Donald J. Trump on November 30, our U.S. President called on Maduro to immediately resign, guaranteeing him and his family safe passage out of the country, but only if he immediately agreed to leave office and the country. Maduro countered, seeking a global pardon for any crimes he and his associates might later be charged with. President Trump declined that request, the talk reached an impasse.
Within hours, the President announced closure of Venezuela’s airspace and notified private pilots through the FAA, not to fly over or into Venezuela and that the nation’s airspace is closed.
In addition to moving an aircraft carrier into the region, since early September our U.S. Navy has been ordered, on several occasions, to blow Venezuelan ships out of the waters of the North Atlantic and Caribbean seas suspected of being drug traffickers. Yes, you read that correctly. If those ships were in U.S. Coastal Waters, our U.S. Coast Guards, at times backed up by our Navy or Naval Reserves, come aboard, commandeer and occasionally seize vessels suspected of drug trafficking. The sailors and crews of those boats are taken into custody, charged with appropriate crimes or in some cases immediately deported back to their nation of origin to a potentially more dangerous fate.
We are however not in any declared state of military conflict with the nation of Venezuela, with the exception of their recently closed airspace. The President has defended these actions, and the decisions of his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, as likely saving the lives of thousands of Americans from ingesting illegal and dangerous Fentanyl. Yet without boarding any of these ships, we have doomed dozens to death, with evidence only gathered by drone or intelligence sources. We know of many other countries which produce and smuggle in larger sources of Fentanyl, and I was even surprised to learn during one of my own recent surgeries, that Fentanyl is also used in very small doses as a surgical anesthetic, as it is 50 times more powerful than morphine.
Leading Democrats and Republicans on the two committees in both chambers of Congress overseeing the Pentagon have begun raising questions about the manner and force used by our U.S. Navy on these alleged drug boats. Operating under verbal commands alleged to have been given by Defense Secretary Hegseth, the use of lethal force has been authorized for all ships and crew members suspected of drug smuggling at sea. International maritime law provides no nation with such authority. Interdict a ship, move on board, seek out smuggling activity, gun or drug running, etc, make arrests and later hold trials, but not execution without proof of illegal actions.
As we stand often atop a small mountain of our own piety to justify our military actions and foreign policy choices, before this goes much further, let’s take a good hard look in the mirror. Are we directing and making our own long and justifiably proud U.S. Navy into PIRATES?