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Strike kills two
The United States military struck a low-profile vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs, according to U.S. Southern Command and the Department of Defense.
“killing two people accused of trafficking drugs”
U.S. Southern Command said in a post that it “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narcotrafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific,” and the Pentagon did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.
The strike came as the nearly yearlong campaign of bombing boats allegedly trafficking drugs now exceeds 210 after more than 60 strikes off Latin America’s Caribbean coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and it was described as the first attack announced in about two months.
Gen. Francis Donovan, who leads U.S. Southern Command, said the U.S. is “committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region.”
Debate over legality
CNN reported the strike was the first known attack in more than two months and said it was not clear why the strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific paused, while noting that prior to the pause the U.S. had destroyed at least 67 vessels and killed at least 221 people since the “Operation Southern Spear” campaign began in September 2025.
The Pentagon did not provide definitive evidence that the targeted vessels were involved in drug trafficking, and CNN said the administration has told Congress the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels and has justified lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House after “a careful review” of classified information that strikes have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” and he urged Trump to “examine the circumstances of these strikes” and cease what he called an “illegal, costly and ineffective” operation.
The Pentagon’s inspector general said in May it plans to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework, but CNN reported the evaluation is focused on the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes.
Regional expansion and fallout
The strike also landed amid U.S. efforts to extend its offensive to land across multiple Latin American countries, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil.
“Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations”
Guatemala denied reaching such a deal, and the campaign’s mission remained classified, with the Pentagon inspector general’s office reporting in May that it would review whether the military followed standard targeting procedures.
The New York Times reported the U.S. military had killed at least 223 people since its campaign of boat strikes began nearly a year ago, and it said the military killed two men in the eastern Pacific strike that SOUTHCOM announced early Monday.
Legal specialists cited by The New York Times said the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, while the U.S. continued to frame the operations as lethal actions against “narco-terrorist networks” under Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere.