The United States conducted air strikes on four vessels suspected of drug-trafficking in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the deaths of 14 people, a move sharply condemned by Mexico and international legal experts.
Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of Defense, announced Monday that the strikes occurred about 400 miles (643 km) from Mexico’s Acapulco coast and were carried out on vessels “known by our intelligence apparatus” to be travelling along established narcotics-trafficking routes.
He explained that the operation eliminated eight suspects in the first strike, four in the second and three in the third, with one person reportedly surviving. “The department has spent over two decades defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” Hegseth posted on X.
The strikes — part of what the administration calls its “war on narco-terrorism” — mark a clear escalation of U.S. anti-narcotics efforts, following similar operations in the Pacific and Caribbean that by now have killed at least 57 people.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she “does not agree with these attacks,” adding that Mexico has instructed its foreign minister and navy to meet with the U.S. ambassador. “We want all international treaties to be respected,” she told reporters.
Legal scholars have also weighed in. Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor at University of Notre Dame, stated: “It is a greater crime to summarily execute people suspected of drug trafficking than drug trafficking itself.” Another official from Colombia described the strikes as “disproportionate and outside international law,” arguing that those targeted had “no judicial process” or “possibility to defend themselves.”
The operation has heightened tensions between Washington and several Latin American governments, which say the U.S. campaign risks violating sovereignty and international legal standards.
