A United States Congressional Commission has decided to open a formal investigation into the military operation that resulted in the death of two survivors of an attack on a suspected drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean.
The decision came after a report from the Washington Post reveal that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth .
The episode occurred on September 2nd. After a missile was fired that destroyed the boat, images from a drone showed two crew members still alive, clinging to the wreckage.
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According to sources who had direct access to the operation, the commander of the Special Operations Forces ordered a second attack to fulfill Hegseth’s order, killing the survivors.
The revelation provoked a reaction in Congress. The chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Forces committees, both Republicans, released joint notes with their respective Democratic colleagues stating that they want a “complete investigation” of the facts. Parliamentarians requested documents, records of orders and the legal basis for the operation.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the Republican majority has been acting in line with the government. The public outcry of this operation represents a rare departure.
Hegseth, in response to criticism, wrote on his X account that the actions are “legal, authorized and efficient” and that dead drug dealers are “members of designated terrorist organizations.” He accused the press of fabricating reports to “discredit American warriors.”
The Pentagon’s stance, however, generated growing irritation in Congress. In private meetings with parliamentarians, as determined by the Washington Postthe Department of Defense refused to bring in lawyers capable of explaining the legal basis of the attacks. Requests for documents, however, have also been ignored.
The Trump administration has argued that the United States would be in a “non-international armed conflict” against organizations linked to drug trafficking, a position supported by a confidential opinion from the Attorney General’s Office. But experts in international law and former military lawyers tell the newspaper that the argument does not hold water and that killing defenseless survivors constitutes a war crime.
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A group of former Armed Forces prosecutors released a report on Saturday (29) reinforcing that, even in the context of confrontation, international law requires that survivors unable to fight be rescued and treated as prisoners of war. “The actions described leave no margin: this is a serious violation, whether as a war crime or homicide,” says the document.
The Special Operations Command had informed the government that the so-called “second shot” would aim to sink the wreckage and avoid risks to navigation.
Parliamentarians who received this briefing classified the justification as implausible. “It is absurd to claim that the remains of a small boat pose a risk in a huge ocean. And killing survivors is illegal,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts).
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Internal data obtained by Washington Post indicate that the American military has carried out more than 20 attacks against boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific since the beginning of this campaign.
Now, with Senate and House committees working together, pressure for transparency over operations conducted by the Trump administration in the region is expected to increase in the coming weeks.
