The Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) reported on X that on February 23rd, under the direction of General Francis L. Donovan, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a “lethal kinetic strike” against a vessel that, according to U.S. intelligence, was operating for organizations designated as terrorist and traveling through known drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean.
Three men identified by Washington as "narcoterrorists" were killed in the operation. No casualties were reported among U.S. forces.
The announcement comes just two days after another similar attack in the eastern Pacific and expands the geographical scope of a campaign that is no longer limited to a single maritime area. With this new action, the death toll since the operation began in September 2025 would exceed 150 people, in at least 44 confirmed attacks against vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking.
The offensive, named Operation Southern Spear, is part of a broader strategy aimed at disrupting the logistical networks of transnational crime in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. However, its impact transcends the fight against drugs and is beginning to redefine the security balance in the region.
By February 21, reports had accumulated at least 148 dead from 43 attacks against 44 ships, and the first U.S. bombing of a ground target in Venezuela had already occurred, marking a turning point in the campaign. The expansion of these operations into Venezuelan territory and the renewed attacks in the Caribbean are raising diplomatic and military tensions in the hemisphere.
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