Caribbean Calamity: US Strikes on Suspected Smugglers Continue

On September 2, the United States struck an assumed drug transportation boat in the Caribbean while in international waters. The boat had 11 passengers; the initial strike left two survivors, who were killed during a second strike. Based on similar operations in the past and the conditions of the attack, it is speculated that the strike used missiles fired from an MQ-9 Reaper drone, although these claims have not been verified by any source and should be treated as such. The passengers were believed to be members of the Tren de Arguas Cartel, which has been declared a terrorist organization by Donald Trump via executive order on January 20, 2025. The strikes were commanded under Admiral Frank M. Bradley, as part of a military operation to target drug smuggling operations into the United States under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. 

Under international law, it is illegal to attack combatants unless they are:

1. In an active warzone, and are identified as enemy combatants, as part of an active war or military operation.

2. On a battlefield, and pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to another person.

Whether or not these classifications apply to narcotics smugglers—and especially those killed in the boat attack—is still being determined and will be an important part of the legal debate ahead. However, the majority of legal scholars believe the strikes to be illegal under the current international framework.

Donald Trump does have some legal defenses: first, while the United States does agree to various international laws on warfare and attacks, it is still not a party to the International Criminal Court and its legislation. As such, persecution of war crimes by United States soldiers falls entirely on the United States and its commanders. This makes it entirely possible that, despite immense criticism from the international community and US Democrats, no one will face legal consequences for the strikes.

In addition, Donald Trump has some legal grounds on which he argues the strikes have been conducted. The first stems from both his informal declaration of war on cartels, in which he stated that the US was in a “non-international armed conflict.” The second is his much more formal declaration of drug cartels as terrorist groups via executive order on January 20, his first day in office. Under the U.S. “war on terror” policy, cartel members could be considered as foreign combatants and could thus be struck legally.

The strikes are called illegal under the international law titled the “Double Tap Law,” which dictates that shooting or attacking non-combatants is illegal. Injured troops (or survivors from a strike on a vessel), as well as troops that are fleeing/retreating, are considered non-combatants unless they continue to attack or engage in combat despite being injured.

Immediately following the strikes, US Democrats heavily criticized the Donald Trump Administration, calling their strikes a breach of international law and due process. This continued into calls for investigations into the strikes and how they were authorized. American officials close to the September 2 strike spoke to the New York Times anonymously and stated that the boat began to turn around when they spotted a military aircraft following them before being hit. If true, it would indicate that the personnel were beginning to flee, which undercuts Donald Trump’s argument that the vessel contained enemy combatants.

The authoritarian leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, called the strike a “heinous crime” on September 15, saying that it was a “military attack on civilians” and that, if the United States believed the boat’s passengers were drug traffickers, they should have been captured, not killed. Maduro was indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States during Trump’s first term, and said the United States was trying to goad Venezuela into war.

Additional strikes have been conducted since. In total, 87 have been killed. A complete list of strikes with in-depth explanations is provided by Britannica here.

On September 19, Trump announced his second strike on another boat in Caribbean international waters, which killed 3 people and was described as “extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists.”

Weeks later, the Colombian president accused the United States of murder, claiming that the strike had killed Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian fisherman.

On October 3, the Trump Administration notified Congress that it had determined it was in a formal armed conflict with cartels, strengthening its own legal defenses under the international laws explained above.

A third strike was conducted on October 3, in which Trump said he was carrying drugs. No further information has been provided. Days later, the Dominican Republic said it had recovered cocaine from a boat that was recently destroyed in a US airstrike, but did not specify when the strike had occurred. Dominican officials said it was the country’s first joint operation in the Caribbean Sea with the United States against “narco-terrorism.”

On October 3, another strike on a drug boat occurred, with its passengers being described as affiliated with drug groups. Colombian president Gustavo Petro said that the boat had Colombian citizens aboard, stating that “a new war zone has opened up.”

Strikes on suspected cartel boats have continued up to December 4, and are expected to continue going ahead. Britannica and the New York Times have provided a complete list of strikes conducted.

On the domestic side, officials are curious as to whether there is even anything to be done about the strikes. The September 2 strike remains the most controversial. Recently, camera footage from the aircraft that conducted the September 2 strike was released.

In response, on December 1st, Pete Hegseth said that he only attempted to further disable the boat and had no intention of killing the survivors. Despite false claims on social media, no audio of the operation communications during the strikes has been made, and the Admiral in charge of the strike, Frank M. Bradley, did not say “Kill them all” during the operation.

Just yesterday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during an interview at the Reagan Defense Forum that he had left the operations room after the first strike, but still would have authorized the second strike regardless. “A couple hours later [after moving on], I was told, hey, there had to be a reattack, because there were a couple folks who could still be in the fight,” Hegseth told Tomlinson. “Access to radios. There was a link-up point with another potential boat. Drugs were still there. They were actively interacting with them.” “I said, ‘Roger, sounds good,’” Hegseth said. “From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike.”

Pete Hegseth has not indicated if he will release the full video of the strikes. Despite these concerns, December 2 saw Donald Trump issue a full presidential pardon to Honduran leader Juan Orlando Hernández, freeing him from a 45-year sentence for conspiring to import tons of cocaine into the United States. Donald Trump stated, without evidence, that Juan Orlando Hernández had been a victim of a Biden Administration witch hunt. Further clarification on this pardon has not been provided.

Until they are, however, opponents and supporters of the Trump Administration are left with no choice but to sit and wait like sitting ducks. 

Read more here:

• Anushka Patil, The New York Times

•  Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Anusha Mathur, NPR