(Reuters) -The U.S. has acknowledged carrying out at least seven strikes since September on vessels near Venezuela that it says were transporting drugs, killing at least 32 people.
A separate strike - in the Pacific, not the Caribbean - occurred late on Tuesday.
The U.S. has described some of the victims as Venezuelans, while Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said others were from his country. In Trinidad, family members of one man believed killed in a strike have demanded proof he was a drug trafficker.
Venezuela's government has said the strikes are illegal, amount to murder and are an aggression against the country.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has shored up his security powers and deployed tens of thousands of troops around the country, has also accused Donald Trump of seeking regime change, an allegation the U.S. president has downplayed.
Here is a list of the strikes:
SEPTEMBER 2 - The U.S. military killed 11 people in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics, Trump said, in the first known operation since his administration deployed warships to the southern Caribbean. The Venezuelan government later denied any of the 11 were members of the Tren de Aragua gang mentioned by Trump.
SEPTEMBER 15 - Trump said that the U.S. military carried out a strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel vessel heading to the U.S. He said three men were killed in the strike, adding that it occurred in international waters. Trump provided no evidence for his assertion that the boat was carrying drugs.
SEPTEMBER 19 - Trump said the U.S. attacked a vessel carrying drugs, killing three men.
OCTOBER 3 - The U.S. killed four people in a strike against a vessel allegedly carrying illegal drugs just off the coast of Venezuela, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
OCTOBER 14 - A U.S. strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela killed six suspected drug traffickers, Trump said.
OCTOBER 16 - The U.S. military carried out another strike in the Caribbean, killing two people. In the first case of its kind, there were survivors, a Colombian and an Ecuadorean, who were swiftly returned to their home countries. Ecuador has since said it has no evidence to detain its citizen and he has been released.
OCTOBER 17 - Hegseth said a strike killed three people. Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who is involved in a spat with Trump which escalated this week, disputed a claim by the U.S. defense secretary that the boat belonged to the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, saying instead it was the property of a "humble family". The ELN has also disputed Hegseth's claim.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Julia Symmes Cobb and Idrees Ali; Editing by Alistair Bell and Marguerita Choy)
