Broad slice of Americans oppose Venezuela boat strikes, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) – A broad swath of Americans oppose the U.S. military’s campaign of deadly strikes on boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs in Caribbean and Pacific waters near Venezuela, including about one fifth of President Donald Trump’s Republicans, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

About half of respondents – 48% – said they opposed conducting the strikes that have killed 87 people without first getting authorization from a judge or court, while 34% said they supported them. Eighteen percent were unsure or undecided.

Among Republicans, 67% supported the strikes and 19% opposed them. Among Democrats, 80% opposed the strikes and 9% supported them.

The six-day poll, which concluded on Monday, comes amid mounting tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, as Trump weighs options including land strikes to combat what Washington has portrayed as President Nicolas Maduro’s role in drug trafficking. Maduro has denied having links to the drug trade.

Administration officials say the strikes are stopping “narcoterrorists,” Venezuelan groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations who transport drugs to the United States that could kill Americans. 

Experts say the strikes may be illegal, since there has been little or no proof made public that the boats are carrying drugs or that it was necessary to blow them out of the water rather than stop them, seize their cargo and question those on board.

Additionally, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the right to declare war that would allow for such a prolonged campaign of strikes.

Concerns about the strikes increased this month after reports that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike to take out two survivors to comply with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s direction that everyone should be killed.

There have been at least 22 strikes that have killed 87 people since September 2.

Trump’s critics also questioned his commitment to fighting the illegal drug trade after he granted a pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the U.S. after his conviction of using his office to aid traffickers.

Americans generally opposed the pardon, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Sixty-four percent said they were against it, while only 8% supported it, with the remaining respondents not sure or skipping the question.

Trump told reporters he had freed Hernandez in response to pleas from Hondurans and that he felt “very good” about the decision. He asserted without evidence that Hernandez had been the victim of a witch hunt by the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey gathered responses from 4,434 U.S. adults nationwide and was conducted online. It had a margin of error, a measure of precision, of 2 percentage points in either direction.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)