The United States has resumed airstrikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in South American waters after a two-month lull. The strike took place on Sunday (23) in the Eastern Pacific and killed two people aboard a speedboat, according to US Southern Command, the military command responsible for Latin America, which announced the operation on Monday (24).
In a post on X, Southern Command said it carried out a "lethal kinetic strike" on a low-profile vessel operating along established narcotrafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific. The statement said intelligence confirmed the boat's involvement in drug trafficking and labeled the two dead "narco-terrorists". No evidence was presented, Folha de S.Paulo noted. The post included a video showing a moving speedboat hit by a projectile and bursting into flames, the same pattern seen in previous operations.
"Let me be clear: we will not allow narco-terrorists to operate with impunity in the Western Hemisphere, nor will we allow their deadly poison to reach American communities," said General Francis Donovan, head of Southern Command. Speaking to Stars and Stripes, Donovan added that the United States intends to impose what he called total systemic friction on traffickers, disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership and eliminating cartel terror across the region.
Campaign tops 60 strikes and hundreds of deaths
The bombing campaign against boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific has now passed 60 strikes. The death toll exceeds 210, according to Stars and Stripes, while Folha puts it at at least 220. The previous strike took place on June 21, when two people accused by the US of drug trafficking were killed and six others aboard the same vessel survived the American missile.
The two-month pause began on the day far-right politician Abelardo de la Espriella was elected president of Colombia, part of an ideological shift that brought allies of President Donald Trump to power in several South American countries, Folha points out. The resumption comes amid a rhetorical offensive by Washington in the region: last week, during a visit to Panama, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow joint military operations with the United States against criminal groups on their soil, according to Stars and Stripes.
Folha notes that the maritime route targeted is not the main entry point for drugs into the United States. In this strike, as in previous ones, Southern Command presented no public evidence that the destroyed vessel was carrying drugs.