A new YouGov survey has found that Americans are more likely to oppose U.S. strikes against boats near Venezuela than support it after a month of attacks on vessels suspected of transporting drugs off the country’s coast.
Americans also strongly oppose the U.S. military invading the South American nation and a majority now oppose the deployment of U.S. Navy vessels in the country’s surrounding waters.
The survey’s results, which YouGov released Friday, follow Trump’s revelation that he authorized covert operations in Venezuela and the U.S. military’s increased presence in the Caribbean Sea as tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela continue to rise.
YouGov’s survey shows a majority of Americans oppose the Trump administration’s boat strikes against Venezuelan vessels that it has alleged are trafficking drugs to the United States.
The Trump administration has so far carried out at least 14 strikes against boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and East Pacific since the beginning of September. According to the administration, the strikes have killed 61 people.
The poll found that 42 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove of Trump’s boat strikes while 27 percent said they strongly or somewhat support the strikes and 31 percent said they were not sure whether they support them.
The government has not yet provided evidence that the boats were carrying drugs. The poll found that 51 percent of Americans believe the vessels were carrying drugs and that another 48 percent believe the boats were affiliated with criminal or terrorist organizations. Forty-three percent believe that some of the boats destroyed were civilian or fishing vessels.
According to YouGov, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe the Trump administration’s claims.
GOP members were also more likely to support Trump’s assertion that the administration was “just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.” Sixty-six percent of Republicans support this statement while only 10 percent of Democrats and 28 Independents said they did.
The survey also found a drop in support among Americans for U.S. Navy presence near the country’s coast compared to its findings from a similar survey administered near the beginning of September.
The new survey found that only thirty percent of Americans continue to support military presence off the South American country’s coast while the number who disapprove has remained roughly the same as it did in September, at 37 percent. The share of people “not sure” over whether they approve or disapprove has grown from 26 percent to 32 percent in the last month.
YouGov pollsters noted that the September survey showed Americans almost evenly divided on support for the deployment of U.S. Navy ships to Venezuela. Thirty-six percent of Americans approved while 38 percent disapproved of sending Navy vessels near the country. The sharpest drop in support was recorded among Republicans.
Both the October and September surveys recorded Americans’ opposition to military invasion of Venezuela. In October, forty-six percent of survey respondents said they strongly or somewhat opposed the U.S. military using force to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Eighteen percent said they strongly or somewhat approved, while 36 percent were unsure.
The YouGov poll had a sample size of over 2,000 respondants and a margin of error around 4 percent.
