The Trump administration on Wednesday killed two more people in the eastern Pacific by bombing a vessel accused—without evidence—of trafficking drugs, bringing the death toll from the US military’s illegal campaign of boat attacks in international waters closer to 200.
Amnesty International, which has spoken out forcefully against the boat strikes since they began in September 2025, warned in a statement Wednesday that “these extrajudicial killings are becoming normalized” as they fade from the headlines and lawmakers do nothing to stop the administration.
“Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral," said Amanda Klasing, Amnesty’s national director for government relations. "People of good conscience cannot allow this to continue, yet Congress has so far failed to halt, or even slow down, this lethal and unlawful campaign.”
The US Southern Command announced strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday and Wednesday, attacks that killed three people total.
SOUTHCOM called the victims “narco-terrorists” without any evidence. According to a tracker maintained by The Intercept’s Nick Turse, the Trump administration’s boat bombing campaign has killed 197 people since September 2025.
On May 27, 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/qKvSjxpk3P
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 28, 2026
“Numbers alone cannot capture the unimaginable human toll of this horrific campaign of murder at sea," Klasing said Wednesday. “Every single person that the U.S. has killed at sea was arbitrarily deprived of their right to life, and they and their families have a right to justice. Lawmakers must do everything in their power to halt this campaign and hold everyone responsible accountable for their role in these extrajudicial killings.”
“We are witnessing the height of lawlessness—a government taking military action to kill people who it unilaterally deems ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’ and then bragging about it on social media and stonewalling members of Congress demanding explanations," Klasing added. “Regardless of whether the victims committed crimes or not, killing them is completely illegal under both US and international law. Alleged criminal suspects should be dealt with by law enforcement who are bound by international human rights law, which prohibits using lethal force unless absolutely necessary based on an imminent threat to life.”
Few of the nearly 200 victims of the US military’s assault on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have been publicly identified. Earlier this year, family members of two Trinidadian men—Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo—killed by a US strike in October filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Trump administration.
“Rishi was a hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again and to make a decent living in Venezuela to help provide for his family,” said Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister. “If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”
Ana Piquer, Amnesty’s Americas director, called for urgent action from the international community to rein in the lawless Trump administration.
“Beyond US authorities, we need to see leadership from other governments in the region, as well as the Organization of American States,” said Piquer. “The international community must speak out firmly against these murders, which constitute a serious threat to human rights and respect for international law. Governments must immediately suspend intelligence sharing that may contribute to these operations. They further should suspend export licenses to any defense material that could be used to perpetuate these murders.”
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