US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejects criticism of controversial strikes against alleged drug traffickers.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has drafted a legal opinion stating that US military personnel involved in military strikes off the coast of Latin America are immune from prosecution, The Washington Post and the Reuters news agency have reported.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel provided the White House with the opinion on the issue of criminal liability for the strikes on vessels in the Caribbean, the outlets reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The strikes on alleged drug traffickers have come under intense scrutiny from Democrats, legal experts and even some Republicans since they began in September.

The US military has carried out at least 19 strikes on boats allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing at least 76 people.

The White House claims the strikes are part of “a non-international armed conflict” against “narcoterrorists” and “unlawful combatants” with ties to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

The Trump administration has not released evidence that the boats were carrying drugs.

The administration of former US President George W Bush coined the term “unlawful combatant” to deny certain enemies of the US protections under the Geneva Convention.

The term, which is not mentioned in the Convention, is controversial in international law and has been rejected by many human rights advocates and legal experts.

“The Maduro regime is a narco-terrorist regime indicted in the Southern District of the United States for narco-terrorism, but more importantly, they’re also a transshipment organization that allows these groups to operate from their national territory.” — @SecRubio pic.twitter.com/RP9sVJcbZk

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 13, 2025

Washington’s actions have made even some of its closest allies uncomfortable.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that the UK had stopped sharing intelligence on drug trafficking operations with the US, though London and Washington have otherwise deep intelligence and defence ties.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the same day that the strikes violated international law as he attended a minister-level meeting of the G7 in Canada.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back on the criticism, telling reporters that none of the G7 members had raised the issue during the two-day summit, according to Reuters.

“I don’t think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is,” Rubio told reporters on Wednesday from a US airbase.

“They certainly don’t get to determine how the United States defends its national security.”

Rubio also denied the CNN report.

“Nothing has changed or happened that has impeded in any way our ability to do what we’re doing,” Rubio said.

“Nor are we asking anyone to help us with what we’re doing.”