Overview
- U.S. Southern Command said a May 26 strike in the eastern Pacific killed one person and left two survivors and that a May 27 strike killed two people, with both actions shown in command-released video.
- SOUTHCOM has framed the operations as directed against vessels “operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” and says intelligence placed the boats on known narco-trafficking routes.
- The Pentagon inspector general has opened a self-initiated review to assess whether the strikes followed the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle used for military targeting, but the review will not rule on the legality of the strikes.
- The Defense Department has not publicly produced evidence that the struck boats were carrying narcotics, prompting legal and human-rights groups and U.N. experts to warn the operations could amount to extrajudicial killings.
- The two most recent strikes add to a campaign begun in September that has destroyed dozens of vessels and raised a cumulative death toll in the high hundreds while prompting search-and-rescue activations and calls from lawmakers and partners for more oversight.