President Donald Trump said this week that the United States had struck a boat in the Caribbean that he claimed belonged to Tren de Aragua, a notorious organised crime gang, and was smuggling drugs to the US.The Trump administration has long claimed that cocaine shipments from Venezuela are fuelling a drug overdose problem that plagues the US.Here is what is happening between the US and Venezuela, and what facts on the ground tell us:What action is the US taking against Venezuelan drug cartels?The US attack on the Venezuelan boat on Tuesday came just a few days after news reports circulated about US warships advancing into Venezuelan waters.Last month, The New York Times reported that Trump had signed a secret directive instructing the Pentagon to use military force against certain Latin American drug cartels designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations.Earlier in August, multiple news agencies reported that three US Aegis-class guided missile destroyer ships had headed to the Caribbean alongside other warships to counter narcotics trafficking.The Reuters news agency, quoting two anonymous individuals who had been briefed on the deployment, reported that USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima, and USS Fort Lauderdale were headed towards the Venezuelan coast, carrying 4,500 US service members, including 2,200 Marines.The US Fleet Forces Command published a news release on August 14, saying sailors and Marines assigned to the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group had departed from Norfolk, Virginia and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The release did not explicitly state details of the mission o …
