The US operation, dubbed Southern Spear, has killed at least 194 people in dozens of attacks since September.
Published May 27, 2026
A U.S. military attack on a so-called drug-trafficking ship in the eastern Pacific has left one person dead and two stranded at sea, continuing a pattern that has alarmed global human rights groups, officials said.
“During this action, one male narco-terrorist was killed and there were two survivors,” U.S. Southern Command wrote in a post to X on Tuesday. “We have immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search and rescue systems for survivors,” it added.
Video posted on social media by U.S. Southern Command shows the boat speeding across the water before exploding into flames. No survivors were seen in the video.
US President Donald Trump has said his country is “in a state of armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, claiming they are responsible for the scourge of fatal drug overdoses plaguing many American communities.
The military operation, dubbed “Southern Spear,” has killed at least 194 people in dozens of similar airstrikes since last September, according to an Associated Press tally.
The US military claimed that the targeted vessels were “operated by a designated terrorist organization” and “traveled along known drug trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean” for drug trafficking. It provided no details or evidence to support the allegations.
Legal experts and human rights groups say the attack on the boat could amount to extrajudicial killings because it targets civilians who clearly pose no immediate threat to the United States.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced that the president had signed a new “counterterrorism strategy” that makes eradicating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere a top priority for the administration.
