U.S. Strikes Suspected Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific, Killing Six
U.S. Southern Command has conducted another strike on a suspected smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, destroying the vessel and killing six male suspects, the command announced Sunday.
The strike was the 45th lethal attack on a suspected drug smuggling boat since September. To date, the campaign has resulted in at least 157 fatalities, according to the New York Times, plus an unknown quantity of drugs destroyed. The Trump administration claims that the strikes (and a ramp-up in nonlethal Coast Guard interdictions) have increased the price of cocaine, reversing a years-long trend of cheaper and more abundant supplies on U.S. streets.
The administration has encouraged its Latin American partner nations to step up their own interdiction efforts, and there have been some early results in Mexico, El Salvador and Ecuador. The joint counter-narcotics campaign has been rebranded "Shield of Americas," and is helmed by the departing Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.
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"The heart of our agreement is a commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks," Trump said in a launch ceremony for the new initiative last weekend. "Once and for all, we’ll get rid of them."
The lethal strikes remain controversial: the campaign has raised questions about the legality of killing men who were previously arrested as criminal suspects. The airborne interdictions have been criticized by many legal experts at home and abroad, and may fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The White House and the Pentagon maintain that cocaine importation is a form of violence, and that the strikes are a form of collective self-defense against the drug.