The US military said it carried out a strike Friday on a vessel accused of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people.
The action is part of a campaign that began in early September under the Trump administration to destroy suspected drug-trafficking boats in Latin American waters. Those strikes, which have also occurred in the Caribbean Sea, have killed at least 183 people in total, according to counts tied to the campaign. The military has not produced evidence that any of the targeted vessels were carrying narcotics.
The operations increased as the US boosted its military presence in the region to levels described as the largest in generations. The strikes preceded a January raid that resulted in the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; he was brought to New York on drug-trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.
In Friday’s incident, US Southern Command said it struck traffickers using known smuggling routes and posted a video on X showing a small boat afloat before an explosion engulfed it in flames. In a tweet, Southern Command said that on April 24, at the direction of SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear executed a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by what it described as Designated Terrorist Organizations, with intelligence indicating the vessel was transiting known routes.
President Donald Trump has characterized the situation as an “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and defended the strikes as a necessary escalation to curb the flow of drugs into the United States. Critics have raised concerns about the legality of the boat strikes.
