Poli Alert Politics & Civics
Related Articles
The U.S. military launched a second lethal strike this week against what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said were vessels engaged in drug trafficking operations in the eastern Pacific, marking an escalation of President Donald Trump’s campaign against alleged “narco-terrorists.”
In a statement Wednesday night, Hegseth said three men were killed when a boat “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling” was destroyed along a well-known trafficking route. Earlier Tuesday, he announced that a separate strike had killed two people.
“These strikes will continue, day after day,” Hegseth said on X. “These are not simply drug runners — these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the Al Qaeda of our hemisphere and will not escape justice.”
The Pentagon has now conducted nine such maritime strikes since the campaign began last month — seven in the Caribbean and two in the eastern Pacific — killing at least 37 people, according to official statements. The new attacks represent a shift to waters off South America, where much of the world’s cocaine originates.
Trump invokes wartime authority
President Trump has defended the strikes as part of an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, designating them unlawful combatants under legal authorities once used in the post-9/11 war on terror.
Asked about the legality of the operations, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that,” adding that similar attacks on land could follow.
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” he said. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”
Appearing alongside Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the policy, saying, “If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending drugs to the United States.”
Lawmakers and allies voice alarm
Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about the operations’ legal basis and lack of congressional authorization. Several members of Congress who attended recent classified briefings left frustrated by what they described as scant information about the intelligence underpinning the strikes.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro denounced the latest attack as “murder,” writing on X that “whether it be in the Caribbean or the Pacific, the U.S. government’s strategy violates the norms of international law.”
The White House and Pentagon declined to say whether the latest target was Ecuadorian or Colombian.
Strikes widen U.S. military role at sea
Videos posted online by Hegseth purportedly showed small vessels exploding in open waters and debris floating afterward. U.S. officials said the targeted boats were transiting one of the main cocaine routes that stretch from Colombia and Ecuador toward Central America and Mexico.
The operations come as the United States maintains a heavy naval presence in the Caribbean and off the Venezuelan coast, fueling speculation that the administration may expand its campaign against narcotics networks linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces narcoterrorism charges in U.S. courts.
Trump has argued that the maritime strikes are saving American lives by disrupting drug flows. “Every time you see that happen,” he said, “you’re saving 25,000 lives.”
Ecuadorian officials said one survivor from an earlier strike was returned home and later released for lack of evidence he had committed a crime there. The Trump administration has since avoided prosecuting survivors of the targeted vessels.
