President Donald Trump and Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro had a phone call where they discussed a possible meeting as the US continued to threaten military action against the country.
Trump has launched a crusade against suspected drug traffickers from Venezuela, breaking with US foreign policy and authorizing missile strikes on suspected vessels funneling drugs into the country.
The New York Times reported on Friday that multiple sources close to the president said Trump spoke with Maduro on the phone sometime last week.
The conversation included a potential meeting between the two leaders, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly joined the call as well.
Another source clarified to the publication that there are currently no concrete plans between the two leaders.
The Trump administration has repeatedly stood by efforts to kill potential Venezuelan operatives traveling by boat in the Caribbean.
Current and former officials at the Pentagon have estimated that the lethal campaign against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers has killed over 80 people, including 11 people on board a boat hit by a US missile strike in September, according to the Washington Post.
On Friday the Post reported that two sources with direct knowledge of the operation said that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave intelligence analysts monitoring the boat to 'kill everybody' on board on September 2.
The sources said that the first missile struck the boat and set it on fire, but officials saw two survivors clinging to the wreck once the smoke cleared.
In line with Hegseth's lethal direction, a second missile was fired, and the two survivors were 'blown apart in the water,' The Post reported.
Hegseth fired back on the reporting of his chilling message, taking to X on Friday and calling it 'fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory.'
The Defense Secretary doubled down on the 'lethal, kinetic strikes' and confirmed that the administration intends to kill 'narco-terrorists' who are 'poisoning the American people.'
'The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people - including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans - to flood our communities with drugs and violence,' Hegseth wrote.
'The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.'
In a separate post shared on Friday evening, Hegseth warned: 'We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.'
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also denied the reporting, telling The Washington Post in a statement: 'This entire narrative is completely false.'
'Ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success.'
The September attack was reportedly led by SEAL Team 6 and overseen by Admiral Frank 'Mitch' Bradley, according to the Washington Post.
Two sources told the outlet that Bradley said on a conference call that the two survivors needed to be killed because they could call other traffickers to save them and their cargo, making them a continued threat.
One person who watched the live feed of the attack told The Post that the footage was horrifying.
There's also a discrepancy in how the White House justified the attacks, with two congressional aides telling the publication that lawmakers were told the follow-up attack was to remove carnage, not kill survivors.
Politicians and legal experts have disputed Hegseth's claim that the administration is acting in accordance with international law.
Representative Seth Moulton called the explanation for the second attack 'patently absurd,' noting that 'killing survivors is blatantly illegal.'
'Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder,' Moulton added.
Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces, told The Post that since the two countries aren't in 'armed conflict' killing the men 'amounts to murder.'
The United Nations Charter states that the US only has the right to use military force against a vessel if it is engaging in an armed attack.
Anthony Clark Arend, a Georgetown University specialist in international law, told Politifact that: 'There has been no evidence presented that the vessel was engaging in an armed attack or was about to be engaging in an armed attack.'
However, Mike LaSusa, the deputy director of a crime and security think tank, told Politifact that it isn't unprecedented for the US to use lethal military force against suspected drug traffickers.
Since that attack, the Pentagon was estimated to have launched missiles at at least 22 more boats, according to internal data seen by The Post.
Rubio announced earlier this month that, as of Monday, the department named the Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Rubio stated that the Cartel de Los Soles is a group of high-ranking individuals following Maduro who have corrupted the country's military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary, including invoking terrorist violence and trafficking drugs.
However, experts told CNN that the term is more of a broad description of corrupt officials as opposed to an organized terror group.
The Trump administration has been vocally opposed to Maduro, with Rubio calling the leader an illegitimate president.
On Thanksgiving, a week after the reported phone call, Trump told service members that the administration was expanding military efforts to land strikes.
'In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore,' he said.
Trump added that it was 'easier' to intercept potential drug traffickers on land, and that it would be starting 'very soon.'
'We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,' he added.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the Defense Department for comment.
