US Southern Command said in a statement on Friday that its forces blew up another alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and killed two people as the bombing campaign against small civilian vessels continues.
As usual, SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claims that the boat was carrying drugs, something the Pentagon hasn’t done since starting the bombing campaign on September 2, 2025.
SOUTHCOM said the two people it killed were “narco-terrorists,” a term the Trump administration employs in its attempts to justify extra-judicial executions at sea for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US.
According to a count from The Intercept, the latest strike brings the total number of boats that have been destroyed to 55, and the number of people killed to at least 183. All of the dead were civilians since they were operating civilian vessels, were not engaged in combat, and didn’t pose any threat to the US at the time of the strikes.
The latest boat strike comes after survivors of two US boat strikes on Ecuadorian fishing vessels spoke to Drop Site News and alleged that they were captured and held by US forces after their boats were blown up.
“The fishermen told Drop Site News they’d been struck by a drone with a yellow cylinder five days earlier, forced to jump overboard to escape the fire caused by the explosion, and subsequently taken captive by forces on a US-flagged blue patrol ship,” Drop Site reported, citing accounts from the crew of La Negra Francisca Duarte II, one of the boats that was targeted.
The Drop Site report also cited Roxanna Mero, the wife of an Ecuadorian fisherman who disappeared after a US boat strike in January. Mero told the outlet that the last time she spoke with her husband, Carlos, was on January 19, when he said that “American aircraft, two drones, and a blue patrol ship” were circling his boat, La Fiorella.
Carlos was worried about the presence of a US aircraft due to the US bombing campaign, but also relayed that a local coast guard vessel had already inspected his boat and found nothing. “The next day, the boat went up in smoke. The eight fishermen aboard have not been seen since,” the report said.
