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10m ago

U.S. Says Pacific Strikes Kill 14 on Suspected Drug Boats as Campaign Widens

The White House frames the boat attacks as wartime action against 'narco‑terrorists' under presidential authority.

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Gabriel Cabrera, president of the Venezuelan Youth Center for Democracy, gives a statement outside of the U.S. embassy with members of the organization holding signs that read in Spanish "Intervention is not the solution," in reference to U.S. warships operating in the Caribbean, in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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Overview

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said three strikes hit four vessels in the eastern Pacific on Monday, killing 14 people with one survivor taken over by Mexican search and rescue authorities.
  • Hegseth said the action was carried out at President Donald Trump’s direction and that U.S. intelligence assessed the boats were on known trafficking routes carrying narcotics.
  • The latest attacks raise the publicly acknowledged death toll to roughly 57 from at least 13 strikes since early September, with operations now extending from the Caribbean into the eastern Pacific; an official told DW the latest were off Colombia.
  • Officials have released little public evidence about the targets or drugs involved, prompting lawmakers, legal experts and rights groups to question the legality, demand proof and press for congressional oversight.
  • The U.S. has ordered major force deployments to the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group and the USS Gravely’s port call in Trinidad, and Trump has authorized CIA covert operations in Venezuela as regional tensions increase.