The Pentagon said Wednesday that three people were killed in another U.S. strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific alleged to be carrying drugs. U.S. Southern Command, which manages American military activity in Latin America, said on social media the “lethal kinetic strike” hit a boat it described as being operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations,” killing “three male narco-terrorists.” SOUTHCOM also posted an unclassified video of the attack.
The strike follows a series of recent actions: SOUTHCOM said a Tuesday strike killed four people and a Monday strike killed two. Two separate strikes on Saturday struck two vessels and left five dead and one survivor; the U.S. Coast Guard has since suspended the search for that survivor.
With Wednesday’s attack, the command says at least 178 people have been killed since the operations began in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean in early September. Officials say at least 53 vessels have been targeted during the campaign.
President Trump has characterized U.S. forces as being in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels in Latin America and has defended the strikes as an escalation meant to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States and prevent overdose deaths. His administration, however, has provided little publicly verifiable evidence to support claims that the strikes have killed designated “narcoterrorists.”
The boat strikes began months before a January U.S. raid that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; Maduro was brought to New York to face drug-trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.
Critics have raised legal and strategic concerns about the campaign, arguing the strikes’ legality is unclear and questioning whether they will meaningfully curb overdoses. They note that much fentanyl linked to fatal overdoses is typically trafficked overland from Mexico, where it is produced using precursor chemicals imported from China and India.