United States forces have killed five more individuals aboard vessels in the Pacific Ocean, raising the death toll from the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged seaborne drug traffickers to at least 104 since September.
The US military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced on Friday that it carried out “lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels” in the eastern Pacific at the instruction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, resulting in the death of three people in one vessel and two in another.
Thursday’s attack by US forces followed a strike on another vessel the previous day, which also occurred in international waters in the eastern Pacific and resulted in the death of four individuals, according to SOUTHCOM.
While the US military categorized the nine victims of the recent attacks as “male narco-terrorists,” Washington has not provided evidence that the nearly 30 vessels destroyed since September in the Pacific and Caribbean were involved in drug trafficking.
The Secretary of Defense, Hegseth, is getting a lot of criticism. People say he ordered a second attack on survivors who were holding on to pieces of a ship after an earlier attack. Experts say it is wrong to attack people who are already in trouble.
Latin American leaders and legal experts have condemned the US attacks as “extrajudicial killings,” while Trump has attempted to justify the killings as necessary to combat drug trafficking into the US from Latin American drug cartels, particularly those based in Venezuela.
Trump has also ordered a significant military deployment to Latin America and threatened to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, accusing him of overseeing a drug trafficking cartel.
Total Vanal Blocade of All Oil Tankers
Earlier this week, Trump escalated tensions by ordering a “total” naval blockade of all oil tankers under US sanctions from entering or leaving Venezuelan ports, a move designed to restrict the country’s oil resources and cripple its economy.
Maduro has condemned Washington’s military mobilization and accused Trump of using the fight against drug trafficking as a pretext for “regime change” in Venezuela and for seizing the country’s oil reserves.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated on Thursday that he is willing to mediate between the US and Venezuela to “avoid armed conflict.” Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum also offered to act as a mediator to find “a peaceful solution so that there is no US intervention.”
Lula, one of Latin America’s most influential leaders, expressed that Brazil is “very worried” about the escalating crisis between Washington and Caracas. He told reporters that he informed Trump that “things wouldn’t be resolved by shooting; it is better to sit down around a table to find a solution.”
“I am at the disposal of both Venezuela and the US to contribute to a peaceful resolution on our continent,” he added.
Lula also voiced concern about the underlying motivations behind the campaign.
“It can’t just be about overthrowing Maduro. What are the other interests that we don’t yet know about?” he questioned, noting that he did not know whether it was related to Venezuela’s oil, critical minerals, or rare earths.
“Nobody ever states concretely why this war is necessary,” he remarked.
According to The Associated Press, around 15,000 US personnel are now involved in the operation, marking the largest military buildup in Latin America in generations, alongside 11 warships, including the US’s largest aircraft carrier, and a squadron of advanced US Marine Corps F-35 fighter jets, in addition to other planes and drones.
