The United States has resumed bombing boats it says carry drugs in waters off South America, ending a two-month pause in the campaign. US Southern Command (Southcom), the military command responsible for operations in Latin America, announced on Monday (24) that it had carried out a "lethal kinetic strike" against a speedboat in the Eastern Pacific, on what it described as an established drug-trafficking route. The two people on board were killed, according to Southcom, which presented no evidence of drugs on the vessel.
According to Folha de S.Paulo, the strike took place on Sunday (23), more than two months after the last attack announced by Washington, on June 21. The pattern repeated itself: a video posted by Southcom on the social network X shows the moving boat hit by a projectile and bursting into flames, a scene similar to the more than 60 strikes that together have killed at least 220 people since the campaign began. "The operation resulted in the death of two narcoterrorists", the command wrote, using the term the Donald Trump administration applies to suspected traffickers. In the June operation, two people were killed and six others aboard survived the American missile, Folha reports.
"Let me be clear: we will not allow narcoterrorists to operate with impunity in the Western Hemisphere or allow their deadly poison to reach American communities. This operation is a powerful demonstration of our lethal precision, overwhelming capability and absolute determination to protect US territory", said General Francis Donovan, head of Southern Command.
For Brazil, the resumption raises a diplomatic flag. The country, like Mexico, stayed out of the Shield of the Americas (Escudo das Américas), the anti-drug coalition launched by Trump in March at a Miami summit that gathers about 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, according to newspaper O Globo. The pact allows member states to request US military support against cartel infrastructure and trafficking routes, according to the initiative's Wikipedia page. Outside the coalition, the Brazilian government watches from a distance a campaign that may move ashore: according to Gazeta do Povo, the renewed bombing comes alongside declarations that the United States is expected to carry out ground actions in the region soon, a scenario that would put the sovereignty of South American countries at the center of the debate.
Washington's allies move in the region
Governments aligned with Trump are moving ahead. On Wednesday (26), Ecuador announced it will carry out joint anti-drug operations with Colombia and the United States along its border with Colombia, where several armed groups operate, O Globo reported. "The United States will also be part of the strategies we will implement", said Ecuadorian Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo. Both President Daniel Noboa and Abelardo de la Espriella, the right-wing politician elected president of Colombia on June 21, the same day as the last naval strike before the pause, are part of the Trump-led coalition.
The offensive also has a verbal front. Since the Miami summit, Trump has taken to calling Mexico the "epicenter" of cartel activity in the hemisphere and to criticizing President Claudia Sheinbaum directly, according to US press coverage compiled by Wikipedia. The rhetoric, combined with the promise to act on land, keeps regional governments guessing about Washington's next targets.
The campaign's effectiveness, however, is under question. Experts heard by Folha point out that the maritime route being bombed in the Pacific is not the main drug-trafficking route into the United States.