US president justified recent strike on boat by accusing Venezuela’s President Maduro of direct links to drug cartels.
By Sarah Shamim
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:
