The Southern Lance Operation marks its first anniversary this Wednesday with a toll of at least 227 dead, 68 vessels destroyed, and only three documented survivors, according to a report by the agency EFE regarding the campaign of military attacks by the United States against drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific.
It all began on September 2, 2025, when Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office that the Pentagon had just “neutralized” a “vessel carrying drugs, a large quantity of drugs” in the Caribbean, attributed to “narcoterrorists” from the Tren de Aragua. Minutes later, he shared a declassified 29-second video showing a boat turning into a fireball.
That first attack was shrouded in controversy from the start: it was later revealed that a second wave was ordered against two survivors who were already in the water, who also perished. Legal experts and lawmakers in Congress noted that the action could constitute a war crime, although this did not halt the campaign, formalized on November 13, 2025, by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
An American official cited by EFE stated that the operation has led to "record reductions" in illicit maritime activities: 65% less in the western Caribbean, 60% less in the eastern Caribbean, and nearly 50% in the Pacific. "We are forcing them to change routes. We are forcing them to spend more money. We are forcing them to take on greater risks," he said regarding the pressure exerted on the cartels.
Far from slowing down, the operation has become institutionalized. On August 4, 2026, the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) activated the Joint Task Force for the Western Hemisphere (JTF-WHEM), under the command of Brigadier General Kevin Jarrard, which replaced the Southern Lance structure and carried out its first lethal attacks on August 24 and 26.
In parallel, the U.S. has developed new capabilities for the Caribbean theater: in April 2026, it established the Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC) and conducted the exercise FLEX2026 in Key West, integrating artificial intelligence, drones, and unmanned vessels into a new doctrine of autonomous warfare with the Caribbean as the central stage.
This military architecture responds to a strategy that goes beyond drug trafficking: it addresses narcoterrorism as a legal category and explicitly links Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua with the presence of extra-hemispheric adversaries — China, Russia, and Iran — in the region. In this regard, in August, SOUTHCOM issued direct warnings to Havana.
In the diplomatic arena, the Coalition Against the Cartels of the Americas (A3C), composed of the U.S. and 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries, strengthens the regional block. The rise to power in Colombia of President Abelardo de la Espriella on August 7, with a closely coordinated agenda with Washington, foreshadows even more aggressive campaigns in the coming months.
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