A fresh US military strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed two men on Friday, with one person surviving the attack.
Footage shared by US Southern Command on social media appears to show a dark, boat-shaped object at sea moments before a blast erupts, sending a towering column of fire into the air.
Southern Command said it “immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate search and rescue operations” for the lone survivor.
The strike comes just days after the White House revealed that President Donald Trump had approved a new counterterrorism strategy placing the dismantling of drug cartels across the Western Hemisphere at the top of the administration’s security agenda.
Since early September, the Trump administration has carried out a series of military strikes targeting suspected drug-trafficking boats in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea. The campaign has reportedly left at least 193 people dead.
However, the military has not publicly released evidence showing that the targeted vessels were transporting narcotics, prompting renewed scrutiny as the pace of strikes has increased in recent weeks.
At the same time, Trump has intensified pressure on Latin American governments to deepen military cooperation with Washington and take stronger action against cartels and transnational gangs, which he has described as an “unacceptable threat” to regional security.
The expanding operation has drawn criticism from legal experts and human rights advocates, who continue to raise concerns over the legality of the strikes and the lack of transparency surrounding the targeting process.
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