The US military has killed four people in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, the US Southern Command has said. The command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced on X that it had conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations”.
Wednesday's strike brings the total number of deaths to at least 163 since the US Department of Defense began attacking alleged “narco-terrorists” last September in more than 45 strikes. No US military personnel were harmed, the Southern Command said.
The command claimed that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations”, but provided no evidence. The strike was part of efforts to apply “total systemic friction on the cartels”.
The attack follows a similar strike last Friday on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific that left two dead and one survivor. The US military has framed these operations as counter-narcotics measures, but they have been condemned as extrajudicial killings by the UN and humanitarian organisations.
According to a 2020 report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, 74% of cocaine reaching the US arrived via the Pacific, while only 8% came from fast boats in the Caribbean.
