US military officials have confirmed that American forces launched assaults on three alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration's campaign against suspected traffickers. The strikes occurred on Monday in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The fatalities bring the total number of deaths from US strikes to 145 since September, when President Donald Trump ordered the military to target individuals deemed 'narco-terrorists' on small vessels. According to the Associated Press, there have been 42 known strikes in major drug-trafficking routes.
US Southern Command released video footage of the strikes on social media, but the footage does not appear to provide evidence confirming the boats were involved in drug trafficking. Officials stated that 'intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations.' Four men were killed on one boat in the eastern Pacific, four on another in the same region, and three on a vessel in the Caribbean. No US forces were harmed.
The legality of the boat strike initiative has been questioned. Legal experts argue the attacks amount to extrajudicial military killings without an imminent threat. The Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group, said in a recent analysis that 'those being killed by US military strikes at sea are denied any due process whatsoever,' accusing the Trump administration of asserting 'an apparently unlimited license to kill.'
The strikes follow the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas weeks earlier, who now faces trial in New York on drug and narco-terrorism charges. The Pentagon has deployed over a dozen warships near Venezuela to block drug trafficking and illegal oil trade, though several have been redirected eastward amid tensions with Iran.
