The Trump regime continues its bloody attacks on alleged drug smuggling boats off the coast of South America.  Since the attacks began on September 1, the US Navy has killed at least 69 people on 18 vessels—10 in the Caribbean and 8 in the Pacific.

President Trump justifies the attacks by saying the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and vowing to “destroy Venezuelan terrorists and trafficking networks.” Nevertheless the Trump regime has not provided any positive identification of those killed, nor evidence that the boats were carrying drugs. Neither have they sought congressional approval as constitutionally required.

This body count off South America compares to the killing of 18 merchant mariners by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since 2023. The Trump regime has killed almost four times as many civilians in two months as the Houthi terrorists killed in over two years.

Maritime experts have pointed out that many of the boats sunk have not been large enough to carry sufficent fuel to travel from Venezuela to the US coast and that the  number of personnel aboard appeared more appropriate for fishing vessels than for smuggling drugs.

The air strikes against the local boats have been condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, who said they “violate international human rights law” and must stop immediately. He urged the US to halt its “unacceptable” operations and take measures to prevent the “extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.”

Amnesty International USA described the strikes as murder. “The US government must be held accountable.” Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said the strike “looks like a massacre of civilians at sea. Lethal force against civilians in international waters“ is a war crime, if not in self-defense,

Following the killing of a Colombian fisherman in a recent strike, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petr also accused the US of committing murder.

“We are simply engaged in cold-blooded murder of individuals who may or may not be drug smugglers,” says David Cole, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Cole says that President Trump is “committing homicide” by killing people without trial. “These individuals who have now been sent to the bottom of the sea by this president, if they were tried, at most, would face a sentence of some period of years,” says Cole. “There would be no death penalty authorized under the Constitution for these individuals, even assuming they’re guilty.”

US senators have also demanded the US Department of Justice provide a full legal justification for the boat attacks. The senators stated that killing criminal suspects without due process is forbidden under both US and international law, regardless of wartime or peacetime conditions. The Constitution requires Congressional approval for engaging in war without imminent danger.

The Trump regime has moved a significant nala force into the Caribbean near Venezuela, include eight Navy warships, a special operations vessel and a nuclear-powered attack submarine. When the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrives in the Caribbean next week, it will bring with it three more warships and more than 4,000 additional troops.

The large-scale buildup suggests to many observers that the Trump regime may be preparing to expand operations in the region, raising the possibility of the first U.S. strikes on Venezuela.

Unfortunately, the murderous attacks on alleged drug-running boats by the US Navy has obscured the significant real successes achieved by the US Coast Guard in interdicting drug smuggling. Typically, the Coast Guard tracks smugglers boats, inspects the vessels for illegal drugs, seizes any contraband cargo and arrests the crew to be tried in a court of law, all in accordance with domestic and international law.

Recently, the US Coast Guard announced that it seized nearly 510,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean during fiscal year 2025 (FY25), the largest amount in the Service’s history.

On average, the Coast Guard seizes 167,000 pounds of cocaine annually. The amount seized in FY25 is over three times that amount, and equivalent to 193 million potentially lethal doses (1.2 grams), enough to endanger over half of the U.S. population.

“The Coast Guard’s top priority is to achieve complete operational control of the U.S. border and maritime approaches,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard. “We own the sea, and this historic amount of cocaine seized shows we are defeating narco-terrorist and cartel operations to protect our communities and keep dangerous drugs off our streets.”