US Southern Command announced on February 5 that its forces bombed another alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, marking the second known US strike against vessels in the waters of Latin America this year.
SOUTHCOM claimed that the strike killed two “narco-terrorists,” a term the Trump administration uses to justify extra-judicial executions for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US. The command offered no evidence to back up its claim that the boat was carrying drugs, and hasn’t done so for any of the vessels it has targeted.
According to Antiwar.com’s count, the strike brings the total number of boats the US has destroyed in the bombing campaign that started in early September to 38, and the number of people executed to 119. Airwars, which takes into account people who survived the initial attack but are presumed to have died, has recorded a total of 128 deaths.
All of the people killed are civilians since they are non-combatants and posed no threat to the US military at the time of the attacks.
The last boat strike SOUTHCOM announced took place on January 23, which was the first of the year, as there was a lull in the attacks following the US attack on Venezuela that killed dozens of people and resulted in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The bombing campaign against boats began on September 2 with an attack in the Caribbean near the coast of Venezuela, and at the end of October, the campaign expanded into the Eastern Pacific Ocean, where now the majority of strikes have been launched.
