Donald Trump’s administration has struck another alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing two people on board, in what appears to be the first attack in the Pacific Ocean.
Tuesday’s operation announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brings the death toll from the administration’s campaign to more than 30, as the administration declares itself at war with drug cartels in an expanding military campaign across South America.
The vessel “was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” according to Hegseth.
Two “narco-terrorists” were killed, he said.
The latest strike — what is believed to be the eighth attack since September — raises the death toll from the administration’s attacks to at least 34 people.
“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth added. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Critics have argued the campaign amounts to illegal extrajudicial killings, while members of Congress and civil rights groups are pressing the administration for evidence and the legal memos shared among White House officials to justify the killings.
Two people who survived a recent strike in the Caribbean were sent to their home countries Ecuador and Colombia after Trump hailed the destruction of a “very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE.”
The apparent repatriation raises additional legal questions about the operations, including whether to treat survivors as wartime detainees or transfer them to military or criminal authorities for prosecution.
Ecuadorian officials said there was “no report of a crime” brought against the Ecuadorian survivor, who is not being detained. A Colombian citizen who survived the attack remains hospitalized after his repatriation but is expected to be prosecuted.
Last week, Trump said he authorized the CIA to perform covert operations inside Venezuela, marking a significant escalation of his aggressive campaign against Nicolas Maduro’s regime and drug cartels Trump claims are fueled by the administration.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he “authorized” CIA operations because Venezuela “emptied their prisons into the United States of America” and flooded the country with drugs.
Last month, the administration declared the United States is formally engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that the president has labeled “unlawful combatants,” according to a confidential notice to members of Congress.
The notice appears to invoke extraordinary wartime powers to justify a series of missile strikes targeting boats off the coast of Venezuela and in the Caribbean.
Trump said defense officials are now “looking at land” strikes in Venezuela.
This is a developing story
