A United Nations report has concluded that US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific are illegal and could constitute “crimes against humanity”. In a report published on Monday, UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul said attacks on 68 vessels from September last year to August killed at least 223 people and entailed the “illegal use” of disproportionate force. The findings were released just days after the US military announced its latest attack on another boat, which killed four people.
US President Donald Trump’s administration, which frames the operations against the boats as part of a military conflict, said they are necessary to prevent the flow of lethal drugs into the United States. It has described the drug shipments as an “armed attack” on US territory. Here’s what we know about why the US has been attacking the boats and whether these strikes are legal: The report found that the strikes by US forces are unjustified under national and international law and thus amount to “serial extrajudicial killings in violation of the right to life”.
They “plausibly constitute crimes against humanity”, it said. Even if those attacked were found to be members of organised criminal or “terrorist” groups as the US has claimed, there is no evidence that they had launched an armed attack on the US or were being used as proxies by other countries, which would warrant a US military attack, the report noted. Saul, the UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, added that drug trafficking “is not equivalent to a military attack”.
Furthermore, observers have noted, the Trump administration has never provided any evidence that any of the boats it has struck were trafficking drugs. The UN report also cast doubt over the legality of the US abduction of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, during which 75 people were killed, as well as collaborations with other Latin American countries under the Trump administration-initiated “Shield of the Americas”. The initiative seeks to extend US antidrug operations to land across the region.
The UN report called for internal investigations and for commanders involved in the operations to be held accountable. It concluded that the strikes have failed to prevent the arrival of cocaine in the US on container ships. which are not adequately checked. Washington first began striking boats it claimed were trafficking drugs from Venezuela to the US across the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean in September last year.
The US military has routinely released videos on social media showing the moments the vessels are hit but has disclosed little about those killed and has not provided evidence tying them to drug trafficking. Furthermore, experts said most drugs come into the US via Mexico by land through its southern border and do not originate in Venezuela. Families of those killed have often said they were fishermen and not drug smugglers.
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