The United States announced three more attacks on ships suspected of illegal drug trafficking in eastern Pacific waters, killing 14 people and leaving one person alive.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the attack as a national security measure in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday morning.
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“The Ministry of Defense has spent more than 20 years defending other homelands. Now we are defending our own,” Hegseth wrote.
But critics say the bombing campaign is a form of extrajudicial killing and a violation of international law.
In his post, Hegseth explained that all three airstrikes took place on Monday. An attached video showed a single missile hitting two boats floating side by side, causing both to burst into flames.
There were eight people on board the two ships at the time of the first attack. The second attack targeted a small boat with four people on board, and the third targeted another boat with three people on board.
It was not immediately clear which of the three attacks had survivors. But Hegseth noted that Mexican authorities are leading search and rescue efforts.
The identities of none of the victims have been revealed, and no evidence supporting the drug trafficking suspicions has been made public.
increase in attacks
Monday’s series of attacks was the first time multiple attacks have been announced in a single day.
This is the second time that survivors have been confirmed since the bombing campaign began on September 2nd.
Another strike on October 16 left two survivors, both reportedly repatriated to their home countries.
One person, identified in media reports as Andres Fernando Tufino, was released without charge in Ecuador. Another person, Jason Obando Perez, remains hospitalized in Colombia.
Monday’s airstrike brings the total known death toll to 57. There have been at least 13 airstrikes as part of the two-month operation, targeting 14 ships, most of them small vessels.
However, the pace of attack seems to be picking up. The US bombed three ships in September and announced 10 more attacks this month.
Monday’s series of attacks means there have been six attacks in a week, including on the nights of October 21st, October 22nd and October 24th.
US President Donald Trump’s administration claimed the recent bombing campaign was necessary to prevent illegal drugs from entering the US mainland.
However, human rights watchdogs and international experts have warned that the latest missile attack violates international law, including the United Nations Charter.
Outside of conflicts, states are generally prohibited from using lethal military action against non-combatants. Critics also point out that it is not even clear whether the bombed ship was headed for the United States.
Miroslav Jenka, UN Under-Secretary-General for the Americas, told the UN Security Council this month that he “continues to stress the need for all efforts to combat transnational organized crime to be conducted in accordance with international law.”
However, the Trump administration is increasingly referring to Latin American drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
In September, the US president issued a memo to Congress asserting that drug traffickers are considered “unlawful combatants” in “non-international armed conflicts.”
But legal experts have questioned that rationale, pointing out that drug trafficking is considered a crime, not an act of war.
Tensions with the US Congress
President Trump’s bombing campaign and military buildup in the Caribbean have also raised legal concerns within the United States.
Under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the power to declare war is vested exclusively in Congress.
Congress has occasionally authorized the president to take unilateral military action, but the War Powers Act of 1973 requires such actions to be reported to Congress within 48 hours. It also limits the duration and scope of such measures without Congressional authorization.
Still, critics are concerned that the Trump administration is moving toward greater military intervention in the Caribbean, the eastern Pacific, and the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela.
President Trump has repeatedly insisted that he does not need Congressional approval to proceed with such attacks.
“I don’t necessarily think we’re going to call for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill the people who bring drugs into our country. OK? We’re going to kill them,” he told reporters on October 23.
Air strikes against ships in the Caribbean and Pacific coincide with a military buildup in the region.
Last week, the Pentagon announced it would deploy the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, which includes a Navy destroyer and an air wing, to waters around South America.
President Trump’s actions sparked bipartisan concerns about the Capitol. For example, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has repeatedly denounced military attacks as “extrajudicial killings.”
And on Sunday, in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said the Trump administration failed to justify the airstrikes in recent Congressional briefings.
“The White House and the Pentagon couldn’t come up with a logical explanation for how this is legal. They were strangling themselves trying to explain this,” he said.
Mr. Kelly acknowledged that the White House had presented some evidence of drug trafficking, but argued that it was not sufficient and did not address the entire story of the deadly boat bombing.
“I was presented with some evidence that does not support the story that the White House is telling the American people,” he said.
The U.S. Congress has taken limited steps to curtail a recent wave of boat strikes, but so far little has been achieved.
For example, in September, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow introduced a resolution in the House for legislative approval.
However, this resolution has not yet been voted on. Meanwhile, the Senate earlier this month rejected a similar effort that would have required Congressional approval to continue the strike.
“President Trump has no legal authority to launch a military attack in the Caribbean or any other region without Congressional authorization,” Crow said.
Writing in the Council on Foreign Relations this month, foreign affairs expert Matthew C. Waxman said U.S. lawmakers have yet to take decisive action to halt the bombing campaign.
“Congress remains the most important check on the president, and we are seeing a backlash from members of Congress against the Trump administration in this regard,” Waxman wrote in an Oct. 15 article.
“But they have so far shown little desire to play a role in President Trump’s second term.”
