The U.S. military on Saturday killed another three people accused by the Trump administration of smuggling drugs by sea, according to the U.S. Southern Command, bringing the known death toll from the campaign to at least 83 since early September.
In an announcement posted to social media on Sunday, the Southern Command asserted that the boat was being operated by a “designated terrorist organization” and was trafficking narcotics in the eastern Pacific, but did not provide evidence for those claims. The announcement said that the strike had been carried out by a joint task force called Southern Spear at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and included a video that showed an explosion.
The strike was the Trump administration’s 21st known attack on boats that it claimed were trafficking narcotics in the waters off Central and South America, without publicly providing evidence. Among the dozens of people who have been summarily killed in the campaign was a Colombian fisherman whose family has demanded justice.
A broad range of experts in laws governing the use of armed force have denounced the strikes as illegal because the U.S. military is not allowed to intentionally target civilians who pose no threat of imminent violence, regardless of whether they are suspected of having committed crimes. The administration has argued that the strikes are lawful because President Trump has “determined” that the United States is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels and that those on the boats are therefore “combatants.”
The announcement of the latest strike came hours after the Navy said its largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, had arrived in the Caribbean, adding about 5,500 military personnel to a force of 10,000 troops already in the region and making the U.S. buildup there now the largest in decades. The deployment adds to the United States’ capability of carrying out further boat strikes or potential strikes on Venezuelan land, as U.S. officials say that Mr. Trump is weighing further military action aimed at ousting Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Also on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department would designate a Venezuelan group, Cartel de Los Soles, as a foreign terrorist organization, claiming it is run by Mr. Maduro. The move added to a designation made by the Treasury Department in July.
The State Department designation would restrict financial transactions of the group or anyone associated with it. Mr. Rubio said the group was headed by Mr. Maduro and high-ranking individuals of his “illegitimate” government, who he said had “corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary.” A federal indictment from 2020 accuses Mr. Maduro of drug trafficking charges related to the group.
Edward Wong contributed reporting.
Anushka Patil is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news around the world.
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