The Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out a new lethal kinetic strike against a vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Tuesday, resulting in one death and two survivors, according to U.S. Southern Command in its official account.
The operation was ordered by General Francis L. Donovan, commander of SOUTHCOM, and targeted a vessel operated by designated terrorist organizations that, according to military intelligence, was traversing known drug trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.
"On June 16, under the orders of the SOUTHCOM commander, General Francis L. Donovan, the Southern Spear Joint Task Force executed a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," the official statement noted. "One male narcoterrorist was killed during this action, and there were two male survivors."
After the attack, SOUTHCOM immediately notified the United States Coast Guard to activate the search and rescue system for the two survivors. No U.S. military personnel were injured.
This operation falls within the framework of Operation Southern Spear, the military campaign launched by the Trump administration and formally announced on November 13, 2025, by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, with the stated objective of "defending the homeland" and "eliminating narco-terrorists from the hemisphere."
The escalation of these operations has been sustained since the first kinetic attack, recorded on September 2, 2025, in the Caribbean. As of May 30, 2026, the campaign had accumulated more than 202 dead in at least 61 attacks against 62 vessels, with three captured and two rescued survivors.
Among the most recent attacks prior to Tuesday's were the one on May 28, which left two alleged narcoterrorists dead in the Pacific; the one on May 30, which resulted in three deaths; and the one on June 4, when the Southern Command shot down a narco boat in the Eastern Pacific with two crew members dead.
With Tuesday's attack, the total number of deaths in Operation Southern Spear exceeds 203 fatalities across more than 63 kinetic operations since the beginning of the campaign.
The attacked vessels are described by SOUTHCOM as operated by "Designated Terrorist Organizations," a designation that the Trump administration applied to cartels such as the Venezuelan Cartel of the Suns and other transnational drug trafficking networks.
The operation, however, has generated international controversy due to the lack of a judicial process prior to the attacks and the uncertainties regarding the true identity of the victims, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the campaign in the Caribbean.
Filed under: