Overview
- The Eastern Pacific strike, carried out Friday, killed two men and left one survivor as Southern Command posted video and said it alerted the Coast Guard for search and rescue.
- Public tallies since September now reach roughly 192 to 193 people killed and about 59 vessels destroyed across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
- The administration says the campaign is part of a non‑international armed conflict against cartel “terrorist” groups that allows lethal targeting without trials, even though Congress has not authorized force and the Justice Department’s legal memo is classified.
- The Pentagon has not shown public evidence that the targeted boats carried drugs, and outside research estimates the operations have cost at least $4.7 billion and are likely to exceed $5 billion.
- Rights groups and law‑of‑war experts say the killings may be extrajudicial, and SOUTHCOM’s commander told senators in March that boat strikes change traffickers’ patterns but are not the answer.