American troops launched a new attack this weekend on a ship suspected of transporting drugs in the Eastern Pacific. According to US Southern Command, the operation on Saturday targeted a ship in international waters used by a covert terrorist organization. Three people died.
DEADLY OPERATION: US forces killed three suspected narcoterrorists in a deadly operation in the Eastern Pacific, the latest attack in an ongoing campaign that has eliminated 82 suspected traffickers linked to designated terrorist groups. pic.twitter.com/Vw5ZEEOIvT
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 16, 2025
The attack brings to 82 the number of suspects killed since the start of a campaign launched in early September against human trafficking networks operating between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific. Three survivors have been recorded since the start of the operation.
The campaign is part of Operation Southern Spear, announced Thursday by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The targets were groups accused of mixing criminal activities and terrorist acts, especially the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and the Colombian ELN guerrillas. The attack destroyed dozens of vessels: homemade submarines, fishing vessels and speedboats.
Nicolas Maduro in the viewfinder
Since early September, the United States has carried out air strikes in the Pacific and especially in the Caribbean against vessels thought to belong to drug smugglers. Experts question the legality of attacks in foreign or international waters, against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also called on the United States to halt the operation, and called for a “swift, independent and transparent” investigation. The American President justified this deployment in the name of armed conflict against gangs classified as “terrorists”.
Donald Trump specifically accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of being part of a cartel. The latter denies and condemns the United States’ attempts to shake his power.
Behind the conflict launched “against drug trafficking” and Latin American cartels seems to hide one of the dreams of the Republican president: to overthrow the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Washington has never acknowledged his re-election – denounced as fraudulent by the opposition – in July 2024. A $50 million reward, promised last August against the capture of Venezuela’s president, has yet to find a taker.
