On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced another boat in the Eastern Pacific was destroyed by the U.S. military for allegedly carrying drugs. Four people onboard were killed, marking the 14th such strike since Sept. 1, which have killed at least 61 people, with two survivors and one person missing.
The Trump administration has admitted they don’t know who is on these boats and in fact, don’t find it particularly necessary to find out. The administration also has yet to provide hard evidence that any of these destroyed boats — plus one semi-submersible craft, also known as a “narco-submarine” — are actually carrying drugs. Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., detailed a briefing from Pentagon officials on the boat strikes: “They said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes.”
Jacobs also explained why the military has not attempted to detain or prosecute survivors, “because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.”
“There’s nothing that we heard in there that changes my assessment that this is completely illegal, that it is unlawful and even if Congress authorized it, it would still be illegal because there are extrajudicial killings where we have no evidence,” Jacobs said.
The U.N.’s human rights chief Volker Türk seems to agree. On Friday, he demanded an end to the attacks, saying they exist “in circumstances that find no justification in international law.” Türk also called for immediate and independent investigation of the attacks.
“These attacks – and their mounting human cost – are unacceptable,” Türk said in a statement. “The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.”
“Under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a last resort against individuals who pose an imminent threat to life,” Türk added.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration provided more than a dozen Senate Republicans, excluding Democrats, with a secret target list for the ongoing military campaign, while also attempting to justify the legality of the strikes. ABC News reported that the new information “suggested the administration was preparing for sustained operations against drug cartels and that it believed the military strikes could withstand potential legal challenges.”
The coasts of some Caribbean nations have emptied as of late, as fear of the growing U.S. military presence and bombings has risen. The Washington Post reported that homes on Trinidad and Tobago, an island nation near Venezuela, are vacant while “the waters on which Trinidadians have long relied for their food, livelihoods and leisure no longer feel safe.”
“We are facing … an extremely dangerous and untenable situation in the southern Caribbean,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said Saturday according to the Post. “Peace is critical to all that we do in this region, and now, that peace is being threatened.”
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