A week after U.S. forces blew up a boat in international waters near Venezuela, killing eleven, the government’s account remains opaque. Trump told Congress the boat was “affiliated with a designated terrorist organization,” according to a notice obtained by Reuters. This strike adds a new entry in that contested ledger, intensifying debates over how far commander-in-chief authority can reach without approval or oversight. The unanswered question—who was on that boat, and what exactly they carried—now matters as much as the strike itself. And in capitals from Port of Spain to Quito, the silence after the explosion is becoming louder than the blast.