The United States has added a new drug boat to the list of lethal operations it has been carrying out in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean since September. This Thursday, the Army’s Southern Command (Southcom) confirmed the death of four people who were on a boat, supposedly used by drug trafficking, that they bombed in international waters, in the midst of a political storm over the legality of these actions. The offensive, renamed has already left more than 80 dead in four months and has led half of Washington to wonder if the Pentagon is going haywire.
The announcement was made, with video included, through the account held by the Southcom in X, where it states that “on December 4 (…) the Joint Task Force ‘Lanza del Sur’ has carried out a lethal kinetic attack against a ship in international waters operated by an organization designated as a terrorist organization.” An operation that resulted in the death of “four male narcoterrorists on board the ship.” The US Army has relied on a “confirmation” from US Intelligence to carry out the operation, ordered by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, ensuring that this vessel was transporting “illicit narcotics” on a known drug trafficking route.
Peter Hegseth’s intervention once again places him at the center of the controversy. The secretary, who boasts of wanting to restore a supposed “warrior culture” in the Armed Forces, has been dodging questions from the press for days, especially since the information published in the Washington Post about a previous attack, which occurred on September 2 in the Caribbean. According to the newspaper, the commander in charge of the operation had ordered a second bombardment to finish off two survivors who were still clinging to the destroyed hull of the ship. The White House has denied the version. In fact, Donald Trump has said that he “wouldn’t have wanted a second attack” and Hegseth insists that he only saw the first one “in real time” before leaving for another meeting. Which leaves in the air who gave the order, when the survivors were detected and if the boat was still useful.
The case is now in the hands of the United States Senate. This same Thursday, Admiral Frank Bradley met behind closed doors with the Armed Forces committee to report on the controversial September attack. The senators, who seek to clarify whether Donald Trump’s Government would have crossed any legal limit, have had the opportunity to watch the video of that bombing. At its end, the president of the Intelligence Committee, Democrat Jim Himes, assured that the images show two survivors in “clear distress,” while Republican members closed ranks to defend the army’s intervention.
The legal discussion is not minor. According to NGOs such as Amnesty International and several experts cited by the agency, Reuterskilling suspected drug traffickers who do not represent an imminent threat would amount, under U.S. and international law, to homicide. The Trump Administration, on the other hand, has tried to frame these operations as a “war” against cartels, which it describes as “armed groups,” equating them (without expressly saying so) to organizations like Al Qaeda. The problem is that, according to international doctrine, cartels do not meet the criteria, since they do not maintain a sustained armed campaign for political or ideological purposes. Furthermore, the United States Congress, which has the ability to declare war, has at no time authorized an offensive against criminal organizations.
Meanwhile, the international front is heating up. France has expressed reservations about the legality of the attacks. The family of one of the victims has filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In Colombia, President Gustavo Petro’s lawyer denounced the alleged extrajudicial execution of a fisherman in one of the operations in the Pacific and Donald Trump has declared this week that his Government is preparing to begin operations in Venezuelan territory as soon as possible to “eliminate targets linked to drug trafficking”, just as the White House doubles down.
Possible criminal liabilities are not science fiction. If the internal investigation concludes there were unlawful killings, the Justice Department could charge Pete Hegseth with federal crimes, while Admiral Frank Bradley and other commanders could face a court-martial. No one can hide behind “he was only following orders” if the order is illegal. A separate issue is whether the blood will flow into the river because Trump retains the power to pardon anyone convicted of federal crimes or war crimes, a last ace up his sleeve that he has used before.
