US strikes second alleged drug boat in a week, bringing death toll to 133 | US military
The US military’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said it had carried out the second deadly boat attack this week. In the latest attack, three suspected drug traffickers were killed in the Caribbean on Friday, the command said.
“Intelligence confirmed that the ship transited known drug smuggling routes in the Caribbean and was involved in drug smuggling operations,” Southern Command said. expression. The command included a video of the attack in its announcement, showing a boat wading through the water exploding into flames after being hit with what appeared to be a missile.
Southern Command and the Pentagon did not immediately return requests for additional information.
Friday’s attack comes after Southern Command announced a deadly attack on another boat in the eastern Pacific on Monday. This attack resulted in the deaths of two suspected drug traffickers and one survivor.
According to the Pentagon’s statements, the death toll in Friday’s murders reached at least 133 people in 39 attacks. counted by The Intercept. This appears to be the command’s first strike in the Caribbean since November; The vast majority of recent attacks have occurred in the Pacific.
The legality of these boat attacks is being examined, and legal experts say the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings carried out by the Pentagon with no accountability.
“No legal process is applied to those killed in US military attacks at sea,” the statement reads. analysis It was published Friday by the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy organization. The Trump administration “asserts and uses seemingly unlimited authority to kill people the president deems terrorists.”
Earlier this month, General Francis L. Donovan sworn As the new head of Southern Command. Donovan took over after US Navy admiral Alvin Holsey chose to retire due to reported disagreements over boat attack policy.
Friday’s strike in the Caribbean came after the United States launched an attack on Venezuela’s capital in early January and arrested then-president Nicolás Maduro on drug trafficking charges. The Pentagon framed its operations in the region as a campaign against “narco-terrorism” but provided little evidence of coordinated drug trafficking rings.
