The US military attacked a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Friday, killing two people and raising the death toll to at least 182 in the campaign against people the United States accuses of smuggling drugs at sea.
Gen Francis Donovan of the Marine Corps, the head of the Southern Command, ordered the strike, the command said in a statement on social media, which included a 16-second video showing a boat bobbing in the water and then exploding.
The attack, the 53rd since the U.S. campaign against the boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific started in September, continued a recent acceleration in the pace of strikes. It was the sixth this month.
Experts on the use of lethal force have said that the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings, because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are suspected of engaging in criminal acts. The Trump administration has not provided evidence of drug smuggling.
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The Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean from its headquarters near Miami, cited unspecified intelligence in the announcement Friday. It said the boat had been traveling on “known narco-trafficking routes” and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
Experts and human rights advocates, both in the US and globally, have questioned the legality of the strikes.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said the strikes amount to “unlawful extrajudicial killings”.
The American Civil Liberties Union has cast the assertions by the Trump administration against those it targets as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.” - New York Times/Reuters
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