The United States has killed 14 people in a series of strikes on four suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Pacific Ocean, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday. He described the operation as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to prevent narcotics from reaching American shores.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the strikes took place about 400 miles (643 km) off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico. Mexico’s navy said it is searching for a lone survivor believed to have been aboard one of the targeted vessels.
Hegseth said the boats were “known by our intelligence apparatus” to be traveling along established narco-trafficking routes, noting that eight suspects were killed in the first strike, four in the second, and three in the third, with one survivor. Videos released by the Pentagon show several boats engulfed in flames after being hit by US munitions.
“The department has spent over two decades defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” Hegseth wrote on X.
The strikes, authorized directly by President Trump, mark a significant escalation in Washington’s ‘war on narco-terrorism.’ They follow a series of similar operations in the Pacific and Caribbean, which have reportedly killed at least 57 people since the campaign began.
However, the latest attacks have sparked widespread condemnation across Latin America. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she “does not agree with these attacks” and has instructed the foreign minister and navy to meet with the US ambassador, insisting that “all international treaties must be respected.”
Legal experts have also questioned the legitimacy of the strikes. Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor at Notre Dame University, argued that “it is a greater crime to summarily execute people suspected of drug trafficking than drug trafficking itself.”
In Colombia, Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo described the operation as “disproportionate and outside international law,” saying the victims had “no judicial process” or opportunity for defense.
The campaign has further strained Washington’s ties with Colombia and Venezuela. The US has sanctioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of enabling cartels, while Trump has alleged that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro leads a “drug-trafficking organization” a charge Maduro denies.
In addition, the US has deployed troops, aircraft, and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean. Trump has hinted at expanding the campaign to land-based targets, a move that analysts warn could mark a major escalation and raise serious international law concerns.
