The United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) carried out a new "lethal kinetic strike" this Friday against a drug trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific, resulting in two dead and one survivor.
It was the ninth operation of this kind in less than a month.
The official statement released by SOUTHCOM on the social network X confirmed that the action was ordered by General Francis L. Donovan, commander of the Southern Command, and carried out by the Joint Task Force Southern Spear.
“Under the direction of General Francis L. Donovan, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” the military command stated in its communiqué.
The Southern Command specified that "intelligence confirmed that the vessel was navigating known drug trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific;" and added: "Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this operation. No members of the U.S. military were harmed."
After the coup, SOUTHCOM immediately notified the Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the third crew member who survived the attack.
Along with the statement, the command released a video showing a small boat before it was hit by a projectile, followed by an explosion.
The images, captured from what appears to be a drone with infrared vision, were labeled as declassified.
The ninth operation in less than a month
This attack is the ninth in less than 30 days within the campaign called Operation Southern Spear, launched on September 1, 2025, by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Only during the week preceding yesterday's attack, similar U.S. operations in the Caribbean and the Pacific left five dead.
Since the beginning of the campaign, the attacks have resulted in at least 190 deaths across dozens of operations.
Trump has stated that Washington is in "armed conflict" with the cartels in Latin America, and that the attacks are "a necessary escalation to curb the flow of drugs into the United States and the fatal overdoses that take American lives," as reported by Telemundo 51.
What are kinetic attacks and how do they operate?
The so-called "lethal kinetic strikes" are direct explosive impacts against vessels identified by intelligence as linked to drug trafficking and operated by groups designated as terrorist organizations, including the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua and the Colombian ELN.
The operation unifies the Navy, the Coast Guard, and federal agencies under the command of SOUTHCOM, and represents the largest U.S. military presence in the region since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Legal controversy and questions
Despite the strength of the official statements, several voiceshave criticized the legality of the attacks since their inception, labeling them as a program of extrajudicial killings that violates international law due to the lack of due process.
According to DW, “the administration of President Donald Trump insists that, in practice, it is at war with what it calls ‘narcoterrorists’ operating from Latin America, without providing evidence that these vessels are indeed carrying drugs."
The broader context: AI and new military capabilities
In parallel to the campaign of attacks, on April 21 the U.S. Army ordered the creation of the SOUTHCOM Autonomous Warfare Command, a unit based on artificial intelligence for operations in the Western Hemisphere.
Days before yesterday's attack, the Armed Forces conducted exercise FLEX 2026 in Key West, Florida, led by the Fourth Fleet of the Navy, as a testing ground for the integration of artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, and traditional forces in maritime operations.
Since the beginning of Operation Southern Spear, the accumulated cost of the campaign has surpassed $4.7 billion, according to estimates from the Costs of War Project, and the offensive shows no signs of slowing down.
Filed under: