Media Must Cover US Boat Strikes as Potential War Crimes

The U.S. military has now killed more than 240 people in over 70 boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific since September 2025. Tuesday’s strike killed five more — and as with nearly every previous strike, the military provided no evidence that the vessel was actually carrying drugs. The boat wasn’t moving when it was destroyed. In an earlier strike, two survivors clung to wreckage after the initial blast — and were then killed in a follow-up “double-tap” strike. Some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars have said plainly that the follow-up strikes constitute war crimes. The UN and international legal experts have warned the entire campaign may amount to extrajudicial killings under international law.

The military labels every victim a “narco-terrorist” in a press release. That is not evidence. It is a designation designed to end the conversation before it starts. At least one family has filed an international complaint against the United States. The military has also been accused of using disguised aircraft — a tactic that can constitute “perfidy” under the laws of war.

We call on the media to cover the U.S. boat strike campaign not as a counternarcotics success story, but as what legal scholars, human rights organizations, and the evidence itself demand it be called: a secretive, extrajudicial killing program operating without accountability, transparency, or due process. Over 240 people are dead. The public deserves reporting that takes that number seriously.