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The Pentagon says another U.S. strike in the Caribbean has killed three suspected traffickers. The move is part of what the Trump administration is calling its new war on the cartels.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike Sunday. He said the boat had affiliations with Ejército de Liberación Nacional, a designated Colombian terrorist organization in the U.S.
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He said the U.S. military destroyed the boat on Friday, saying it had “substantial amounts of narcotics” on board.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth said on X.
The strike killed all three men on board, but did not injure any U.S. forces.
Hegseth posted on X that “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the western hemisphere.” He added, “They will be hunted and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”
Colombia responds
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the U.S. strike killed at least one civilian fisherman and that the boat in question belonged to a fishing family with no ties to the drug trade. He accused the Trump administration of murder and said the strike violated sovereign Colombian waters.
Petro said that the boat had gone adrift and had sent out a distress signal for help before it was struck by U.S. forces.
International legal watchdogs have also raised alarms, calling the strike illegal.
Previous strikes
This was the seventh strike in recent weeks. It’s all part of the administration’s push to target drug cartels as terrorist groups.
It comes just days after the sixth strike, which had two survivors. Prior to the recent strike, the total number of fatalities stemming from U.S. military actions against alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean sat at 28.
The strike also occurred just days after the Navy admiral who oversees U.S. policy in the Caribbean and the waters off South America announced he will retire in December.
Jason Morrell (Morning Managing Editor),
Emma Stoltzfus (Video Editor),
and Matt Bishop (Digital Producer)
contributed to this report.