CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The US Must End Its Illegal Boat Strikes

Still from video of a boat strike posted to X by Pete Hegesth.

The U.S. military has been carrying out extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean and Pacific over the past nine months with impunity.

On May 8, the U.S. military struck another boat in the eastern Pacific, killing two people and leaving one survivor. U.S. Southern Command claimed “the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes” and “was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”

According to The Intercept, there have now been 58 such boat strikes since September that have killed at least 193 people. As with the May 8 attack, the names and nationalities of most of these victims remain unknown.

The Trump administration has accused civilian boats of transporting narcotics to the U.S. and says its killing “narco-terrorists.” But the Pentagon has provided no evidence for these claims or any indication that the people killed posed an imminent threat.

International and U.S. law do not allow the use of the military to kill civilians suspected of crimes. Boat bombing on the high seas is not a legitimate law enforcement........

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