The US military has blown up another alleged drug boat in the waters of Latin America, according to a statement released by US Southern Command on Monday.
“On Dec. 22, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel” in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, SOUTHCOM said.
The command claimed the vessel was being operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” and that it was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” but offered no evidence for the assertions. It said the strike killed a “narco-terrorist,” a term the Trump administration uses to justify executing people without trial for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US.
The bombing brings the total number of people extra-judicially executed since the campaign started in early September to 105. A total of 29 strikes have been launched, and 30 boats have been blown up, including 11 in the Caribbean and 20 in the Eastern Pacific.
The bombing campaign started in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela on September 2 as part of the US pressure campaign aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and expanded into the Eastern Pacific at the end of October.
The Pentagon has never shown any evidence to back up its claims about what the boats it has bombed are carrying and has acknowledged to Congress that it doesn’t know all of the identities of the people it has been killing.
