By Jason Lange and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Only 29% of Americans support using the U.S. military to kill suspected drug traffickers without a judge or court being involved, a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The six-day poll, which closed on Wednesday as Washington continued a military buildup around Latin America that has focused especially on Venezuela, showed 51% were opposed to the killings of drug suspects and the rest were unsure where they stood.
In a sign of division within Trump’s party, 27% of Republicans in the poll opposed the practice, while 58% supported it, with the rest unsure. Three quarters of Democrats opposed the practice compared to one in 10 who supported it.
The Trump administration has ordered at least 20 military strikes in recent months against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, killing at least 79 people.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International have condemned the strikes as illegal extrajudicial killings of civilians, and some U.S. allies have expressed growing concerns that Washington may be violating international law.
SHARP BREAK WITH PRIOR PRACTICE
The strikes, which Trump and the Pentagon have often touted in online videos featuring fiery explosions, represent a marked departure from the traditional approach of using the U.S. Coast Guard to intercept maritime drug shipments and prosecute traffickers in court.
The White House says America is at war with drug cartels and courts aren’t needed in armed conflicts, while also accusing the Venezuelan government of being in league with drug traffickers – a charge Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied. Venezuela is preparing its defenses in case the U.S. attacks.
Trump has made fighting drug trafficking a core plank of his presidential agenda and has publicly threatened to expand the strikes to include targets inside Venezuela, though more recently the president said he wasn’t considering an imminent attack.
But taking the U.S. into conflict with Venezuela would also run counter to Trump’s campaign pledge to avoid “stupid wars” and, since taking office in January, his touting of his efforts to resolve global crises, for which he says he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
ONE IN THREE SUPPORT MILITARY FORCE IN VENEZUELA
Only 35% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they supported using U.S. military force in Venezuela to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States without the permission of the Venezuelan government.
With more than 5,000 military personnel and dozens of warplanes onboard, the U.S. Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group moved into the Caribbean earlier this week, sharply escalating the military buildup. That added to the eight warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft already sent to the region.
Maduro, in power since 2013, says the U.S. buildup is designed to oust him and Trump recently warned that Maduro’s days in power were “numbered.” Trump confirmed last month that he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
Just 21% of poll respondents said they backed using the U.S. military to remove Maduro, while a somewhat larger share – 31% – said they would support a U.S. effort to get rid of him through non-military means.
Trump administration officials have made no secret of their hope that Maduro’s generals and others will turn on him. In August, the U.S. doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted online, gathered responses from 1,200 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange and Matt Spetalnick; editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
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