By: Staff Writer
July 31, 2026
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) in a new report documents that 221 people were killed in Caribbean waters since September, 2025 when the US began their military strikes against suspected drug traffickers.
WOLA, said: “Since September 2, 2025, top U.S. officials have posted 63 videos to social media, showing the moments when 221 people’s lives ended as the small boats on which they were traveling exploded, torn apart by bombs and missiles fired by the U.S. armed forces in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
“After nearly 11 months, the Trump administration’s new video postings barely register in U.S. and regional news. Each attack is so similar to those that came before it that there is little “news handle” to grab onto. The boat strikes are blending into the background, buried under layers of newer crises distracting public opinion. After initial shock and outrage, the consequences of these illegal, lethal operations are becoming normalized.”
The Trump administration has conducted a controversial military campaign targeting small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing 221 people across dozens of strikes as part of an anti-trafficking initiative.
The report also said: “…the U.S. government’s boat strikes are not normal and must never become so. They are murder under domestic law and extrajudicial killings under international human rights law.
They are the result of the executive branch’s reckless use of the “terrorist” label to enable employing the U.S. military to target civilians. Their deaths come with no presentation of any evidence of wrongdoing, much less any due process for those being attacked.
They must stop now, and those who have ordered and carried them out must be held accountable in all available venues.”
The report continued: “The boat strikes are more than just a counter-drug strategy gone awry. They have grave implications for U.S. democracy, transparency, checks on executive power, and civil-military relations.
“They are emblematic of an aggressive, militarized reset of U.S. relations with Latin America that could set back causes that human rights, democracy, environmental, and anti-corruption advocates have defended for over half a century.
“They are a poor approach to drug policy, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how organized crime works and how to confront it. They pose a vexing challenge to the next U.S. administration.”