US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Sunday that the US military bombed another boat in the Caribbean and killed three “terrorists,” marking the seventh known US strike on a vessel in the region since the bombing campaign began on September 2.
As usual, Hegseth claimed the vessel was carrying drugs but provided no evidence to back up the claim. He also claimed the boat was affiliated with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), or the National Liberation Army, a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group that operates on the Colombia-Venezuela border and has a presence in both countries. The US has listed ELN as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” since 1997.
“There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike,” Hegseth wrote on X. “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people.”
Most US strikes on boats in the region have targeted boats that departed Venezuela, as US officials have made clear that the real goal of the US military campaign in the region is to pursue regime change in the country, but Hegseth didn’t specify where the boat had departed from. He just said in the post that it was struck in US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which includes all of South America.
On Saturday, President Trump confirmed that the US struck a vessel last Thursday that left two survivors, an Ecuadorian and a Colombian. The president said they were being sent to their home countries “for detention and prosecution.” He claimed the strike targeted a “submarine,” and the video he posted of the strike appears to show a submersible being hit with a missile.
Based on the numbers released by the Trump administration, the US has extrajudicially executed at least 32 people in strikes at sea. The Pentagon has not provided any evidence to Congress to back up its claims about who it is bombing and what the boats were carrying.
The latest strikes came after the news that SOUTHCOM Commander Adm. Alvin Holsey, who has been in charge of the US operations in the Caribbean, was stepping down. According to The New York Times, he previously raised issues with the bombing campaign and the US policy toward Venezuela.
