U.S. Military Strikes Drug-Smuggling Boat in Pacific Ocean

On Saturday, the U.S. military executed another strike on a boat suspected of drug smuggling in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The attack resulted in the deaths of three men, marking the fourth such strike this week and increasing the total death toll to 205.

The U.S. Southern Command’s announcement described the vessel as involved in “narco-trafficking operations” and linked to a designated terrorist organization, though no evidence accompanied this claim. This strike continues a prolonged campaign targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific.

Video shared by the military on social media captures a small vessel navigating the ocean, subsequently hit and enveloped in flames. These operations, launched in early September, reported other strikes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The death toll rose slightly this week as some initially reported survivors remain missing.

The Trump administration has stated that the U.S. is in armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, attributing them to the influx of drugs into American communities. This latest operation was directed by Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S. commander in Latin America. Donovan also recently engaged with Cuban military leaders near the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.

Experts have scrutinized the legality of these boat strikes. The White House validated a report that in an initial attack on September 2, a ‘double tap’ strike followed, killing two survivors of the first assault. Some lawmakers have questioned if this follow-up constitutes a war crime.

So far, only three individuals are confirmed to have survived and been rescued from such attacks. Two of these survivors were rescued from a ‘narco sub’ in October and later returned to Ecuador and Colombia. In March, the U.S. Coast Guard recovered another survivor from a strike and transferred them to Costa Rican authorities.

Earlier this year, families of two Trinidadian men killed in a U.S. missile strike on a Caribbean boat initiated a lawsuit against the Trump administration. They argued that the “premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification.”