A grid of 10 incidents in which the US military targeted small boats in international waters, from September 2 to October 29, 2025. Photo: X/@Southcom/file photo via CNN.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The lethal maritime campaign conducted by the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) continues to claim lives in international waters, with the death toll now totaling 193. Under Operation Southern Spear, the US has carried out 59 military strikes against small boats since September 2025 under the guise of counter-narcotics operations — a policy that international legal experts and analysts still condemn as a systematic campaign of extrajudicial killings.
Recent strikes in the Eastern Pacific
The latest escalation features four consecutive strikes carried out in the Eastern Pacific during late May, underlining the reckless nature of US imperialist actions:
On May 30, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking… pic.twitter.com/IMgQiUTPnP
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 31, 2026
•May 26: The 56th strike killed three people. The toll was updated from one to three on May 31, after no reports of a rescued survivor were available. Herein lies a recurring trend, denounced by experts as a premeditated policy of leaving no survivors.
• May 27: The 57th strike targeted a small boat on the high seas, leaving two dead with zero survivors.
• May 29: The 58th strike resulted in three extrajudicial executions, with casualty figure being similarly adjusted, like that of May 31, due to absence of rescue data.
• May 30: The 59th strike saw US forces destroy yet another vessel, killing three individuals and bringing the total number of campaign fatalities to 193.
Statistical breakdown of the maritime violence
According to data tracked by Orinoco Tribune, the geographical distribution of the 59 strikes and 193 fatalities highlights where the US military has concentrated its lethal force:
• Eastern Pacific: 127 deaths recorded across 42 strikes.
• Caribbean Sea: 66 deaths recorded across 17 strikes.
As seen in these statistics, about two-thirds (65.8%) of the victims were killed in the Eastern Pacific. This operational trend closely aligns with United Nations figures regarding illicit drug flow from Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, via the Pacific Ocean, to the United States, which is estimated at above 80%. The data also reflects a persistent “zero-survivor” pattern, with Orinoco Tribune’s recent data adjustments on May 31 that updated previous provisional figures with confirmed deaths for the May 8, May 26, and May 29 strikes caused by systematic termination of US search-and-rescue operations.
Social media opacity and geographic concealment
An analysis of official updates published by SOUTHCOM via social media since the start of the campaign highlights a calculated pattern of opacity. In addition to the general secrecy regarding the operations, the military command provided virtually no information regarding the specific countries off whose coasts these lethal strikes take place. The deliberate lack of geographic detail prevents independent verification, shields the operations from regional legal scrutiny, and conceals the exact spaces where these high-seas executions occur.
Legal interdictions versus extrajudicial executions
The strategic rationale of the campaign has raised serious questioning among international observers during recent weeks. Standard maritime interdiction operations have recently been reported by SOUTHCOM off the coasts of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia, signaling a temporary pattern of returning to international legality. The most recent strikes in late May, however, point to the opposite direction. This jarring contradiction has led many analysts to question the underlying rationale of alternating between conventional, legal law enforcement procedures and unlawful extrajudicial killings.
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Regional political silence in the face of US barbarism
Despite the systematic violation of human rights and international maritime law, the campaign has been met with political silence across Latin America and the Caribbean. While Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Colombian President Gustavo Petro raised initial, firm denunciations against the high-seas executions, not one regional political leader has since stepped forward to issue real denunciations or concrete proposals to halt the ongoing US barbarism. Analysts claim that this lack of institutional pushback allows US imperialism to continue operating with complete impunity.
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Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SH
