US Southern Command said on Tuesday night that its forces bombed another alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean as the Trump administration continues conducting extrajudicial executions at sea.
SOUTHCOM said that the strike killed at least three people, bringing the total number of people killed in the bombing campaign to at least 191 people, all civilians. In those strikes, a total of 58 boats have been destroyed.
As usual, SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claim that the boat was carrying narcotics, something the Pentagon has never done for any of the vessels it has destroyed.
Several accounts from survivors and family members of victims of other strikes that were reported by Drop Site News suggest the US has previously targeted fishing boats that weren’t running drugs.
The US has escalated the boat bombing campaign since the ceasefire was reached with Iran, and the May 5 strike marked the second in as many days. During one stretch last month, the US blew up five boats over five days.
Besides being clearly illegal under both US and international law, the bombing campaign also hasn’t been effective in stemming the flow of drugs to the US, according to reporting from The Intercept. Numbers from US Customs and Border Protection show that cocaine seizures at US borders and along the coast have actually increased since the bombing campaign started.
