Fact-check finds U.S. strikes killed about 115 people before Venezuela raid

A fact-check by PolitiFact, republished by PBS News, reports that the U.S. government has attacked at least 32 vessels and killed about 115 people in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean since September, based on drug-trafficking claims that the administration has not substantiated with public evidence. The assessment drew far less attention than the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

According to the fact-check, President Donald Trump said the targeted boats were carrying drugs bound for the United States, and he told reporters that the drugs on each boat would kill, “on average, 25,000 people.” PolitiFact rated the claim that each strike saves 25,000 lives “Pants on Fire,” its lowest rating.

The fact-checkers, Louis Jacobson and Maria Ramirez Uribe, wrote that experts on drugs and Venezuela told PolitiFact the country plays a minor role in trafficking the drugs that reach the United States. They also reported that the administration has provided no evidence about the type or quantity of drugs it says were aboard the boats, which they said makes it impossible to know how many lethal doses could have been destroyed.

To illustrate the scale of Trump’s figure, the fact-check cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported roughly 73,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths from May 2024 to April 2025. By that math, PolitiFact noted, the drugs on 32 boats would have been responsible for 800,000 deaths, nearly 11 times the number of U.S. overdose deaths in a single year.

Legal and human rights questions

The strike tally cited by PolitiFact traces to the Washington Office on Latin America, which has tracked the campaign. The group later described the operations as extrajudicial and said the death toll continued to climb in the following months.

International officials have raised similar objections. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said the strikes were “unacceptable” and must stop, and called for an investigation. His spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, said Türk believed the attacks “violate international human rights law,” according to CBS News.

Amanda Klasing, national director for government relations at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement reported by NPR that “extrajudicial killings are becoming normalized” as the death toll grows, adding, “Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral.” NPR reported that the administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narco-terrorists,” and that Trump has said the United States is in an “armed conflict.”

Congress not notified

The PBS account states that members of Congress were not notified in advance of the operation to capture Maduro. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was “just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify” Congress about because doing so would endanger it.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said, “Maduro is terrible. But Trump put American servicemembers at risk with this unauthorized attack.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said the administration left lawmakers with “no information regarding a long-term strategy.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., praised the operation as “decisive action.”

The U.S. Constitution assigns Congress the power to declare war, which it last did for World War II. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the fact-check noted, a president must report to Congress within 48 hours of introducing forces into hostilities and end the action within 60 days absent congressional approval. No authorization for the use of military force has been passed for operations in Venezuela.

Claims about Maduro and Tren de Aragua

PolitiFact also examined Trump’s statement that Maduro “sent savage and murderous gangs, including the bloodthirsty prison gang Tren de Aragua, to terrorize American communities nationwide.” The fact-checkers found no evidence that Maduro sent members of the gang to the United States, and noted that the Justice Department indictment against him does not mention the claim.

They pointed to an April report from the federal National Intelligence Council, which stated that “the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.” Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, face U.S. charges related to cocaine trafficking under newly unsealed indictments. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, whom Trump identified as interim president, described the U.S. military action on state television as “brutal aggression” and called for Maduro’s immediate release.