The US military carried out a strike on a boat suspected of being involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday, killing four people, as the Trump administration continues its campaign against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America.The US Southern Command posted a video of the operation on X, showing what appeared to be a moving boat followed by a flash after the strike.The military said intelligence had confirmed the vessel was actively involved in drug trafficking, but did not release evidence supporting the claim or provide the identities of those killed.Southern Command said on X, “Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere executed a lethal kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean. Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed four narco-terrorists.” It said the vessel was operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean.The latest attack comes just two days after the US military struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs.That strike ended a pause of more than two months in the campaign against alleged smugglers.
At least 227 killed in boat strikes
The latest attack takes the number of people killed in US military boat strikes to at least 227 in 68 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting suspected traffickers nearly a year ago, according to news agency AP.The military has described those targeted as “narcoterrorists” and has said the vessels were operating along known smuggling routes in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.However, the military has generally not provided evidence publicly establishing that the targeted vessels were carrying drugs.In Tuesday’s case, Southern Command provided no details about the vessel’s cargo or the identities of the four people killed.The strikes have faced criticism from human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as independent UN experts, who have described the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings, according to Reuters.
Trump administration expands anti-cartel campaign
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with Latin American cartels and has defended the strikes as necessary to stop drugs from reaching the United States and contributing to fatal overdoses.The administration has also sought agreements with Latin American governments to expand military operations against criminal groups on land.War secretary Pete Hegseth said during a visit to Panama this month that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow joint US military operations on their territory. Guatemala denied reaching such an agreement, while Ecuador launched similar missions with the US in March.The campaign has drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars, particularly over the legal basis for the strikes.The Pentagon’s inspector general said in May that it planned to examine whether the military followed its established six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle when conducting the strikes.The review, however, was not intended to determine whether the attacks themselves were legally justified.The strikes have also raised questions over their effectiveness, with critics pointing out that fentanyl linked to many fatal US overdoses is generally trafficked over land from Mexico, where it is produced using chemicals imported from China and India.
