Madrid/The United States Armed Forces killed four people this Saturday in a new attack against a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea, whose occupants were identified by Washington as drug traffickers. The operation brings to at least 231 the death toll in the military campaign launched by the Donald Trump Administration in September 2025 against vessels allegedly used to transport drugs in the waters of the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.
The US Southern Command reported in your official account of X that the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force carried out the attack against a vessel that was sailing along known drug trafficking routes. According to the military statement, the intelligence services had confirmed the active participation of the boat in drug trafficking. However, the authorities did not make public the evidence supporting this accusation.
The institution described the four deceased as “narcoterrorists”, although it did not reveal their identities, nationalities or their alleged links to any criminal organization. He also did not specify the exact location of the attack or if it occurred in international waters. The Southern Command released a video of the operation in which a boat is seen moving, followed by an explosion.
With the four new victims this Saturday, the US offensive accumulates at least 231 deaths in 69 attacks
The new operation occurred ten days after another American attack against a boat, which left three dead on September 9. The offensive coincided with operations against Ecuadorian fishing vessels in the Pacific, where the US military has intercepted and sunk at least eight vessels. The interventions provoked protests from relatives who deny the accusations and denounce that their loved ones were dedicated to fishing.
On September 12, an Ecuadorian judge ordered the release of 28 crew members of the ships Montecristi and Don Rufo due to lack of sufficient evidence to prosecute them. The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, defended military cooperation with Washington and assured that there was evidence that some of the vessels had supplied drug trafficking networks, although he acknowledged that not all the fishermen were involved in these activities.
With the four new victims this Saturday, the US offensive has accumulated at least 231 deaths in 69 attacks, according to the published balance this sunday Associated Press. The operations They started on September 2, 2025 and have developed mainly in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, where the US Armed Forces have attacked vessels suspected of participating in the transport of narcotics.
Washington seeks to expand its military cooperation with Latin American countries to develop operations against criminal organizations
The Trump Administration maintains that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with Latin American cartels and defends the use of military force as a necessary measure to interrupt drug trafficking into its territory and reduce overdose deaths. However, US authorities have presented little public evidence about the identity of the people hit by the attacks or the cargo carried by the destroyed vessels.
The legality of these operations has also been questioned by human rights organizations, which consider them possible extrajudicial executions. The debate focuses on the use of lethal force against people suspected of criminal activity without arrest or judicial proceedings, as well as the absence of public information to determine whether there was an immediate threat that justified the attacks.
While the maritime campaign continues, Washington seeks to expand its military cooperation with Latin American countries to develop operations against criminal organizations within their territories. The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, assured during a visit to Panama in August that Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala had agreed to participate in joint missions, although the Guatemalan government denied having reached that agreement. Ecuador, for its part, began similar operations with the United States in March.
