Donald Trump has declared war on drug cartels and notified Congress that the United States is now in a ‘non-international armed conflict’.
The extraordinary escalation by the president follows a series of recent strikes on drug-smuggling vessels operated by ‘terrorist organizations’ in the Caribbean.
Trump’s declaration is intended to place an iron-clad legal framework around the military action. According to international law, a country may kill enemy fighters even when they pose no threat and detain them indefinitely without trial.
Congress was notified about the declaration of war by Pentagon officials at a closed-door briefing on Wednesday. It refers to cartel members as ‘unlawful combatants’ whose actions ‘constitute an armed attack against the United States’.
A memo sent to lawmakers goes further than the administration’s previous arguments that is acting in ‘self defense’, arguing that the attacks on boats are not isolated, but consistent with a sustained, active conflict.
The notice uses language from international law – ‘non-international armed conflict’ – which refers to war with a non-state actor.
‘The cartels involved have grown more armed, well-organized, and violent,’ the memo added. ‘They have the financial means, sophistication, and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity.’
It follows complaints from Democratic lawmakers that the strikes – including three deadly attacks on drug traffickers last month – are unlawful under the War Powers Act which requires the consent of the chamber for military action.
The War Powers Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, has been challenged or sidestepped by almost every president since its enactment, including by Barrack Obama in Libya in 2011 and Bill Clinton in Kosovo in 1999.
What the Trump administration laid out at the closed-door briefing was perceived by several senators as pursuing a new legal framework that raised questions particularly regarding the role of Congress in authorizing any such action, the person familiar with the matter said.
Pentagon officials could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations at the center of the conflict, which was a major source of frustration for some of the lawmakers who were briefed, a source revealed.
The administration has called the strikes ‘self defense’ and claimed that the laws of war allow the US to kill, rather than arrest, the smugglers who are working for cartels that the administration has deemed terrorists.
