For the second time in two days, the U.S. military struck a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, killing four people. The latest strike raised the death toll in the campaign by the United States against people it accuses of smuggling drugs at sea to at least 174.
The U.S. Southern Command, led by Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, announced the strike on social media with a 16-second video that showed a stationary boat floating in the water and then exploding.
Legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if those people are suspected of engaging in criminal acts. The Trump administration has not provided evidence of drug smuggling.
The Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean from headquarters near Miami, cited unspecified intelligence in the announcement. It said the boat had been traveling on “known narco-trafficking routes” and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
The attack, the 50th since the U.S. campaign against the boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific started in early September, continued a recent increase in the pace of strikes.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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