The United States claims to have sunk more than thirty vessels and caused at least a hundred deaths, in addition to leaving one person missing, in Caribbean and Pacific waters, as a result of a series of attacks that are part of its offensive against drug trafficking.
The Government of President Donald Trump, which considers Latin American drug cartels as terrorist organizations and against which it has declared a “direct armed conflict,” justifies lethal military operations by US troops in international waters.
In August, he ordered the deployment of military ships to the Caribbean, with Venezuela as the main focus, and then extended the offensive to the Pacific Ocean, involving Colombia and maritime routes near its coasts.
Both the Government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and that of Gustavo Petro in Colombia – both accused by Trump of maintaining ties to drug trafficking – have denounced these attacks as murders and extrajudicial executions.
The UN, for its part, has warned that these would be violations of international law and has asked the United States to put an end to these actions.
The escalation coincides with greater control in the United States Congress over the legality of these operations, especially after the attack on September 2, when a bombing killed two survivors, a fact that experts have pointed out as a possible crime.
Chronology of attacks:
September 2: The United States announces the first attack against a ship in the Caribbean and assures that eleven members of the Aragua Train were traveling on board who would have left Venezuela with drugs bound for the United States.
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The US government released a video of the attack, but did not present evidence of the link to drug trafficking.
September 15: A second attack kills three Venezuelans, according to Trump, who claimed they were transporting narcotics.
September 19: Trump reports a third attack against a boat, without specifying the origin of the journey. The Dominican Republic later seized part of the drugs he was allegedly transporting. Three people die.
October 3: US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announces the fourth attack in the Caribbean, with four crew members killed.
October 14: The US reports a fifth attack near the Venezuelan coast, with six fatalities.
October 16: The United States attacks an artisanal submarine. Two of its four crew members die and two survive the explosion. The survivors, of Ecuadorian and Colombian nationality, are transferred to their countries without judicial process, despite being identified as drug traffickers.
October 19: The US reports that two days earlier it sank a seventh boat, which it linked to the Colombian guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN). Three people die.
October 21: Eighth attack and the first in Pacific waters, near Colombia. Two people die.
October 22: Hegseth reports a ninth attack in the Pacific, killing three.
October 24: Tenth attack against a boat that, according to Washington, was operated by the Tren de Aragua. Six people die in international waters of the Caribbean.
October 28: The deadliest attack until then: fourteen people die after the bombing of four boats in the Pacific. A survivor was not located despite a humanitarian operation by the Mexican Navy.
October 29: A new attack in the Pacific kills four people.
November 1: Hegseth announces another “lethal attack” in the Caribbean, leaving three crew members dead.
November 4: The United States sinks a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people.
November 6: Washington reports an attack on a boat in the Caribbean, leaving three dead.
November 9: The US claims that the day before it sank two boats in the Pacific in two operations that left six dead.
November 14: The Secretary of War presents the military operation ‘Southern Spear’, which is related to the US fight against drug trafficking originating in Latin America.
November 15: The United States destroys another ship in the Pacific Ocean, an attack in which three men died.
December 4: The US Armed Forces publish a video of a new attack against a boat in the Eastern Pacific, leaving four dead.
December 17: The US destroys a new boat in the Eastern Pacific and kills four people.
December 19: The United States announces two more “lethal kinetic” attacks against boats in international waters in the Eastern Pacific, killing five people—three on one boat and two on another.
With information from EFE
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