LatinNews Daily - 14 September 2026

Region: On 2 September 42 US-based human rights, veterans’, and faith-based civil society organisations called on the US congress to halt and investigate the administration of US President Donald Trump’s campaign of military strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. In a joint letter marking one year since the campaign began, which was signed by groups including rights lobby group Washington Office on Latin America (Wola), the organisations said the campaign had killed at least 227 people “posing no military threat to the United States and outside of any armed conflict”, describing the strikes as “extrajudicial killings”. It also highlighted a separate Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation, reportedly run from El Salvador, targeting at least three Ecuadorean fishing vessels. The letter describes these strikes not only as “illegal and immoral”, but also “ineffective at curbing drug supplies and weakening drug trafficking organizations”. It notes that “supplies of cocaine, the main drug that is smuggled from South America, remain unaffected” and that “according to Customs and Border Protection, the volume of cocaine seized in the ten months after the strikes began actually increased two percent over the ten preceding months”. The previous day a group of United Nations experts issued a similar call, demanding “an end to unlawful killings” by the US, saying that at least 223 deaths had been recorded from US air strikes at sea over the past year. They rejected the US government’s legal claims justifying the attacks, saying: “Drug cartels and gangs are not carrying out armed attacks against the United States, and therefore there is no right of self-defence under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Drug trafficking is a law enforcement matter governed by international human rights law on the use of force. Calling it war does not make it one”. The UN experts said the US had struck at least 68 vessels in international waters since 2 September 2025.

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