The United States Southern Command has confirmed conducting lethal military strikes against three vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking operations in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in eight fatalities. The operation, part of an intensified counter-narcotics campaign, targeted boats transiting along recognized narco-trafficking corridors according to official statements.
Recent months have witnessed approximately 20 similar engagements across both the Pacific and Caribbean regions, with estimated casualties exceeding 90 individuals. This escalation forms a central component of President Donald Trump’s strategic offensive against criminal organizations allegedly facilitating narcotics transportation toward American territories.
Legal experts have raised substantial concerns regarding compliance with international armed conflict regulations. A particularly controversial incident occurred on September 2nd, involving consecutive strikes against a single vessel. Survivors from the initial engagement were reportedly eliminated in the subsequent attack, prompting condemnation from multiple international law specialists.
BBC Verify has consulted several prominent legal authorities who concluded that the secondary strike likely constituted an extrajudicial killing under established international legal frameworks. A former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor characterized the broader campaign as representing systematically planned assaults against civilians during peacetime conditions.
The White House has defended these operations as legally justified actions consistent with armed conflict legislation, emphasizing the necessity of protecting American citizens from cartels allegedly “attempting to deliver poisonous substances to United States shores.”
Geopolitical tensions have simultaneously intensified between the Trump administration and Venezuela, with accusations of state-sponsored narcotics trafficking and recent deployment of thousands of military personnel alongside the USS Gerald Ford within strategic proximity to Venezuelan territory. A December 10th seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, alleged to be part of an illicit network transporting sanctioned petroleum, has been denounced by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil as “international piracy” and an attempted resource appropriation.