The United States has killed 14 people in strikes on four suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Pacific Ocean, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday, describing the operation as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to stop narcotics from reaching American shores.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the latest strikes occurred roughly 400 miles (643km) from Mexico’s coastal city of Acapulco.
Mexico’s navy said it was searching for a lone survivor believed to have been aboard one of the vessels.
Hegseth said the boats were “known by our intelligence apparatus” to be travelling along established narco-trafficking routes, adding that eight suspects were killed in the first strike, four in the second, and three in the third. One person reportedly survived. Videos released by Hegseth show several vessels engulfed in flames after being hit by US munitions.
“The department has spent over two decades defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” Hegseth wrote on X.
The strikes, directed by Trump, mark an escalation in what the administration has described as a “war on narco-terrorism.” They follow a string of similar operations in both the Pacific and Caribbean that have killed at least 57 people since the campaign began.
However, the attacks have drawn condemnation from across Latin America. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she “does not agree with these attacks,” and has instructed the country’s foreign minister and navy to meet the US ambassador. “We want all international treaties to be respected,” she told reporters.
Critics have also questioned the legality of the campaign. Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell said, “It is a greater crime to summarily execute people suspected of drug trafficking than drug trafficking itself.”
Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo described the strikes as “disproportionate and outside international law,” arguing that those targeted had “no judicial process” or “possibility to defend themselves.”
The campaign has heightened tensions with both Colombia and Venezuela. Washington has sanctioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro for allegedly allowing drug cartels to “flourish,” while Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a “drug-trafficking organisation,” a claim Maduro denies.
In the Caribbean, the US has deployed troops, aircraft, and the world’s largest warship, the USS Gerald R. Ford. Trump has also suggested he is “totally prepared” to expand the campaign to include land-based targets, a move that would mark a major escalation and raise new questions about his authority under international law.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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