The United States military has killed five people in a strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific, continuing a campaign that legal experts and rights groups have condemned as extrajudicial killings.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, confirmed the strike on Tuesday.
"On October 27, under the direction of SOUTHCOM, Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere executed a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific," the command said in a social media post. "Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed five narco-terrorists."
Tuesday's strike appears to bring the total number of people killed in the campaign to at least 243, according to a tracker maintained by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a US-based research group that promotes human rights and democracy. The campaign has involved more than 70 strikes since it began in September 2025.
The Trump administration has maintained that those targeted were involved in drug trafficking, and has designated numerous criminal groups in Latin America as foreign terrorist organisations. President Donald Trump has described the campaign as part of an armed conflict with Latin American cartels, framing the strikes as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.
However, the administration has not provided definitive evidence to substantiate its claims. Relatives of some of those killed have said their family members were fishermen or workers with no involvement in the drug trade.
Legal experts reject the administration's framing. They argue that drug trafficking is a criminal matter and that military strikes against suspected traffickers are not legally permitted. Rights groups have warned the strikes may amount to extrajudicial killings, as those targeted appear not to have posed an immediate threat to the United States.
SOUTHCOM has frequently accompanied its announcements with videos purportedly showing vessels being struck, but has rarely shared details to support its assertions that those on board were engaged in narco-trafficking.
Adam Isacson, an analyst at WOLA who has tracked the strikes, responded to Tuesday's announcement on social media. "This is the 6th lethal boat strike in the past 4 months," he wrote. "The pace is slower than before, but the administration and its commanders persist in grinding out illegal killings every few weeks, with no discernible impact on the drug trade. A bleak pre-midterms message."
