The U.S. military is holding two survivors of Thursday’s bombing of a boat in the Caribbean, the first time people have survived since the attacks began, CNN and ABC reported based on anonymous sources.
The U.S. Navy, according to these media outlets, is keeping both people on one of its ships after Thursday’s reported offensive on a sixth ship, allegedly owned by Venezuelan drug traffickers, according to President Donald Trump’s administration by the Southern Command, which did not respond to EFE’s questions.
Survivors of Venezuela attack remain in U.S. custody
🇺🇸🇻🇪 Two reported to have survived U.S. attack in the Caribbean. Are they the first prisoners of the drug war? https://t.co/9U9KtaR4nE
– Telemundo News (@TelemundoNews) October 17, 2025
U.S. authorities are treating these individuals, the Wall Street Journal reported, also based on sources.
While Fox News reported the survival of “two or three” people after the attack, which Trump did not announce on his social networks as he did with the others.
The two people, rescued by helicopter and now in custody on a ship, were on a semi-submersible vessel when the attack occurred, ABC detailed.
This follows a report by the organization ‘Fishermen and Friends of the Sea’ in Trinidad and Tobago, which said on Thursday that two Trinidadians were among six people killed in the U.S. military airstrike earlier this week on a vessel in international waters near Venezuela.
The event raises the controversy over the U.S. attacks, which have resulted in at least 27 deaths that Washington links to Venezuelan drug trafficking.
Just Thursday, the upcoming resignation of U.S. Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the Southern Command, in charge of military operations in the Caribbean near Venezuela, came to light, while The New York Times reported that he expressed reservations about these bombings.
Trump on Wednesday authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations in Venezuela and assured that he is studying the possibility of executing attacks against “drug trafficking” on land after the US bombings against ships.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government expressed that day that it views with “extreme alarm” the use of the CIA as “a threat” against Venezuela, a set of actions that, it said, are part of “maneuvers” that seek to “legitimize an operation” of “regime change” in the country.
Filed under: Survivors of U.S. attack near Venezuela
With information from EFE
