The United States has once again pressed the red attack button. The US Army bombed this Wednesday a new alleged drug boat, in international waters, in the Eastern Pacific, causing the death of the four people traveling on board, within the framework of the military operation. Southern Speara campaign that Washington presents as a fight against drug trafficking and that has already left nearly a hundred dead.
The Southern Command of the United States Army (Southcom) has confirmed the attack through its official account on According to the statement, the bombed boat “was operated by a designated terrorist organization” and was sailing along “a known drug trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific.”
As in previous episodes, the Pentagon has insisted that the operation took place in “international waters” and that the vessel “was participating in drug trafficking operations.” The bombing has been ordered directly by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, a constant in a campaign that has already totaled more than thirty vessels destroyed since its start.
The US Armed Forces have accompanied the announcement with a video in which a boat is seen in motion that ends up being hit and destroyed. Neither in this nor in previous operations has the Donald Trump Government provided data on the identity of the deceased, beyond linking them generically to organized crime.
The moment chosen to report the attack has not gone unnoticed. Southcom has released the information minutes before Trump addresses the nation from the White House, in an appearance initially planned with an economic accent, but which has raised expectations after the president’s recent verbal escalation against Venezuela. The Republican president has accused the South American country of having “stolen” American oil and assets and has raised his tone in recent days.
In fact, this Tuesday Trump ordered the seizure of all sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers, a measure that has already materialized in the Caribbean with the towing of one of these vessels to a US port. In parallel, Washington maintains a strong military presence off the Venezuelan coast and the president himself has not ruled out expanding operations beyond the sea, including attacks against land targets, always under the umbrella of combating drug trafficking.
With this new bombing, Operation ‘Southern Lance’ continues to increase a balance that already has at least 99 dead people, according to the latest official count, while the United States consolidates a military strategy in the Western Hemisphere that combines drones, missiles, propaganda videos and a discourse that mixes terrorism, drug trafficking and geopolitics without too many nuances.
