WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military announced another strike on Monday against a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in the deaths of two people. This latest incident brings the total number of fatalities from such boat strikes to at least 170 individuals since the campaign began in early September, over seven months ago. The U.S. Southern Command, which announced the strike, did not provide evidence that the vessel involved was ferrying drugs, despite its stated purpose of targeting alleged drug traffickers.
Human Cost of Imperial Projection
The campaign of attacks on vessels, which the Trump administration claims are trafficking drugs in Latin American waters, has persisted for more than seven months. The U.S. Southern Command has repeatedly stated its objective is to target alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. However, the military has consistently failed to provide evidence that the vessels struck were carrying illicit cargo. This lack of transparency accompanies a rising death toll, with at least 170 people killed since the effort commenced in early September. The latest strike on Monday followed an announcement on Sunday by the U.S. Southern Command that it had blown up two boats in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing a total of five people and leaving one survivor, whose fate was not immediately clear.
President Donald Trump has asserted that the U.S. is engaged in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America. He has justified these attacks as a necessary escalation intended to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and prevent fatal overdoses. Despite these claims, his administration has offered little evidence to support its assertions of killing "narcoterrorists." The U.S. military posted a video on X showing a small boat floating in the water before a large blast hits it, with smoke then seen pouring from the vessel.
The State's Unchecked Violence
The ongoing military actions in the eastern Pacific have continued even as the U.S. military has been preoccupied for more than six weeks with the Iran war. The campaign began months ahead of a U.S. raid in January that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was subsequently brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. This temporal connection links the intensified military operations to broader geopolitical maneuvers by the U.S. state.
On Monday, President Trump appeared to reference the tactic of boat strikes in Latin America while issuing new threats against Tehran. His statements came as a blockade of Iranian ports took effect. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, "Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea." This declaration explicitly connects the lethal force deployed in the Pacific to the projection of military power against other sovereign nations, revealing the unified logic of imperial enforcement.
Pretext for Power
The U.S. Southern Command's repeated statements about targeting alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes serve as the official justification for these lethal operations. Yet, the consistent absence of evidence for drug cargo on the vessels struck undermines these claims. The state's deployment of military force, resulting in significant human cost, proceeds without public accountability regarding the specific nature of the alleged threats. The President's own words further illustrate how these operations function as a demonstration of military capacity, ready to be applied against any perceived challenge to U.S. global interests, under various pretexts.