Report: U.S. Military Destroys 20th Suspected Drug Boat

 

The U.S. military has killed another four suspects in its new airstrike campaign against suspected smuggling boats off Latin America, according to CBS and the New York Times. The strike is the 20th in the series, and brings the total number of deceased to 80 people. 

Pentagon officials confirmed the attack to both outlets, but a formal announcement of the action is still pending, reportedly because top officials are awaiting video footage.

The attacks are controversial in legal circles, both for its compliance with American law and for compliance with international human rights law, and have attracted scrutiny. "The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them," said UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Volker Turk last week. 

Colombia has ceased sharing intelligence with U.S. forces over its concerns about the strikes, and the United Kingdom has decided to stop reporting the movements of suspicious boats in the Caribbean to the U.S.-led counternarcotics consortium, Joint Interagency Task Force West. The family of one of the deceased, Colombian fisherman Alejandro Carranza, has promised to sue the administration in U.S. courts for wrongful death; they have already retained an American attorney.

Out of 20 strikes, only two survivors have been rescued, one Colombian and one Ecuadorian national. Both have been repatriated, and the Ecuadorian national has been released without charges because of lack of evidence. 

The Pentagon has pledged that the attacks will continue. In addition, it is building up a substantial task force near Venezuela's coast, consistent with a large-scale military action. Sources within the department have told CBS that while no decision has been made to move ahead, the president has been briefed on possible strike options, to include attacks on land targets. The carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is now approaching the staging area, bringing four squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighters and three additional destroyers - enough capacity to consider a sustained air campaign.