The US military launched a second strike in as many days on a vessel suspected of drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Saturday, killing three men and intensifying operations against what officials describe as narco-trafficking networks in the region.
US Southern Command announced the operation on social media, stating that intelligence had pinpointed the boat as operating along known drug smuggling routes and engaging in narcotics operations. The command said three men described as narco-terrorists were killed, with no American forces injured in the action.
Friday's strike on a separate vessel killed three men as well, marking back-to-back attacks on suspected smuggling operations. Combined with strikes over the previous week, the total death toll from such military operations has exceeded 200 people since last year.
The escalating campaign reflects the Trump administration's declared armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, which officials blame for flooding American communities with narcotics. Four strikes have taken place over the past week alone, demonstrating the tempo of the operation.
The legal foundation for these strikes has drawn sharp criticism from human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have characterized the operations as unlawful extrajudicial killings. Legal experts have also raised questions about whether the US has provided sufficient evidence that targeted vessels are actually engaged in drug trafficking or whether the strikes comply with international law governing military force.
The White House has not released detailed evidence substantiating the drug-trafficking accusations against the targeted boats, a gap that has fueled debate about the transparency and legality of the campaign.
Author James Rodriguez: "Two hundred people dead in months with minimal public accounting for who they were or what they actually did. That's a major operation flying under the radar."
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