United States forces have killed five more people on board vessels in the Pacific Ocean, bringing 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) said 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, killing three people in one vessel and two in another.
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Thursday’s attack by US forces comes one day after a strike on another vessel, also in international waters in the eastern Pacific, which killed four people, SOUTHCOM said.
While the US military said the nine victims of the attacks over two days were “male narco-terrorists”, Washington has provided no proof that the almost 30 vessels destroyed since September in the Pacific and Caribbean, resulting in more than 100 dead, were involved in drug trafficking.
Defence Secretary Hegseth is also under intense scrutiny for reportedly ordering a second strike on survivors who clung to floating boat debris after an earlier attack on a vessel – attacking shipwreck survivors is considered a war crime, according to legal experts.
Latin American leaders and law experts have branded the US attacks “extrajudicial killings” while Trump has sought to justify the killings as necessary to halt drug trafficking into the US from Latin American drug cartels, particularly those based in Venezuela.
Trump has also ordered a huge military deployment to Latin America and has threatened to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, accusing him of overseeing a drug trafficking cartel.
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Earlier this week, Trump raised the stakes by ordering a “total” naval blockade of all oil tankers – that are under US sanctions – from entering or leaving Venezuelan ports, a move designed to restrict the country’s oil resources and hobble the economy.
Maduro has blasted Washington’s military mobilisation and accused Trump of using the pretext of fighting drug trafficking as a cover for “regime change” in Venezuela and stealing the country’s oil reserves.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that he was 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, told reporters that Brazil was “very worried” about the mounting crisis between Washington and Caracas.
Lula said he told Trump that “things wouldn’t be resolved by shooting, that it was 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 solution on our continent.”
Lula also said he was concerned about what was behind the US campaign.
“It can’t just be about overthrowing Maduro. What are the other interests that we don’t yet know about?” he said, adding he did not know if it was about Venezuela’s oil, critical minerals or rare earths.
“Nobody ever says concretely why this war is necessary,” he added.
According to The Associated Press news agency, about 15,000 US personnel are now taking part in the US operation, the largest military buildup in Latin America in generations, as well as 11 warships – including the US’s largest aircraft carrier – and a squadron of advanced US Marine Corps F-35 fighter jets alongside other planes and drones.
