The President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, announced for the first time on Sunday, November 30, that attacks by United States armed forces against Venezuelans in the Caribbean Sea will be investigated. Photo: National Assembly.
Guacamaya, November 30, 2025. The President of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, declared that a special commission will be formed to investigate the deaths of Venezuelans “extrajudicially murdered” in the Caribbean Sea. He also suggested that his country withdraw from the International Criminal Court for not speaking out on this case.
This statement is in relation to attacks by United States armed forces against vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which were allegedly transporting drugs. Several international law experts have classified these actions as extrajudicial killings. According to the US government’s own announcements, it has already killed 83 people in 21 attacks.
This is the first time the government of Nicolás Maduro has acknowledged victims of these attacks, almost three months after the first one was announced on September 2. On that occasion, the Minister of Communication and Information claimed that the video of the attack was fabricated with Artificial Intelligence.
On November 28, a Reuters article explained that security forces from the SEBIN and DGCIM agencies have increased their presence in Sucre state, allegedly to warn victims’ relatives not to speak out publicly about the attacks. Neither Caracas nor Washington, DC has published information about those affected by the bombings of vessels on the high seas.
After showing photographs of a meeting with the victims’ relatives, Rodríguez stated that their identities are being protected due to “threats being received from certain sectors and people who have a supreme interest in them not telling the truth.”
Rodríguez also said that the opinion of several deputies “is that this International Criminal Court is useless, and I believe Venezuela should withdraw from that institution, which has swallowed its tongue in the case of the extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean.”
“Kill Them All”
According to US officials, in the first attack, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered them to kill all 11 crew members of the vessel they were tracking. Following his orders, a second missile was even fired to kill survivors from the vessel that had already been destroyed.
According to military and international law experts cited by The Washington Post, given that there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men on the boats “amounts to murder.” Furthermore, an order to kill all occupants of the vessel if they could no longer fight “would, in essence, be an order to give no quarter, which would constitute a war crime.”
This course of action allegedly led the commander of Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Admiral Alvin Holsey, to resign to avoid being tried for possible war crimes, a source with direct knowledge explained to Guacamaya.
President Donald Trump claims that his country is in a “non-international armed conflict” against “designated terrorist organizations,” thereby justifying the use of armed forces. This same argument has been used to invoke the Foreign Enemies Act, which led to the deportation of 250 Venezuelans to be imprisoned in El Salvador.
