The U.S. military has launched multiple strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing 11, U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post Tuesday. (U.S. Southern Command)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military conducted three strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea on Monday, killing 11 people, according to U.S. Southern Command.
In a post on X Tuesday, SOUTHCOM said “intelligence confirmed” the vessels were engaged in drug-trafficking operations. A 39-second video was included on the post showing the boats either moving through the water or stationary before being struck.
No U.S. forces were harmed in the operations, SOUTHCOM said.
“Turns out President’s Day — under President [Donald] Trump — is not a good day to run drugs,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X.
The death toll from the strikes on alleged drug boats is now at 144 people in at least 42 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Hegseth said this month in a post on X that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
SOUTHCOM responded to questions about Hegseth’s post saying it had “nothing to add at this time.”
Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
The U.S. resumed strikes in late January after largely backing off in the region following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
The U.S. military has steadily amassed troops, naval and air assets in the Caribbean Sea to strike alleged drug traffickers.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, along with accompanying ships USS Mahan, USS Bainbridge and USS Winston S. Churchill arrived in November, concentrating nearly 20% of the Navy’s deployed warships in the region.
The strike group joined other ships in the Caribbean, including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine expeditionary unit. Also patrolling the region are guided-missile cruisers USS Gettysburg and USS Lake Erie.
Trump said last week the Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East to join other warships and military assets the U.S. has built up in the region.
The U.S. military posture in the Caribbean, however, is costing billions. Bloomberg reported it calculates the operational price tag of the ships deployed there hit more than $20 million a day at its peak from mid-November until mid-January.
