The Trump administration has decided to return the two survivors of an American attack in the Caribbean this week, who are now in US custody, to their home countries rather than prosecute them or hold them in military detention—either of which would have raised legal issues. The pair, who are from Colombia and Ecuador, were rescued from the water after the strike by helicopter and taken to the nearby USS Iwo Jima, the New York Times reports. President Trump posted Saturday that they are being sent home "for detention and prosecution," per the AP.
The men were not seriously injured and are to be repatriated this weekend, per the Washington Post. "It was my great honor to destroy a very large drug-carrying submarine that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route," Trump's post said. "US Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics." The administration has defended its strikes in the area by arguing that the US is engaged in an "armed conflict" with Latin American drug cartels linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
It's not clear why the US decided to repatriate the men, especially if they're "unlawful combatants," as the administration has called its targets. No US official or the embassies of Colombia and Ecuador would say. The decision is in keeping with the Coast Guard practice of turning over people detained outside the US thought to be traffickers, the Times points out. The strike Thursday on the semi-submersible was the sixth in the Caribbean Sea acknowledged by the administration since Sept. 2. The death toll from the first five attacks is 27; officials have said two more were killed Thursday, though the government hasn't confirmed that.
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