US strikes vessel in eastern Pacific, killing 2
By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN
(CNN) — The US military conducted a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killing two people, according to US Southern Command.
“On Dec. 29, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters,” SOUTHCOM wrote on X.
SOUTHCOM said two men were killed and no US service members were harmed in the strike.
At least 107 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of a campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, that the Trump administration has said is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking.
The administration has labeled those killed as “unlawful combatants” and claimed the ability to engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
The US military most recently struck a “low-profile vessel” allegedly trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on December 22. The Trump administration’s strikes have prompted scrutiny from some members of Congress, in addition to human rights groups.
Monday’s strike comes days after President Donald Trump said the United States took out a “big facility” as part of a pressure campaign against Venezuela that has included a massive US naval and troop buildup in the Caribbean and a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, in addition to the strikes.
The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that country.
Trump, who has provided few additional details on the “big facility” action, told reporters on Monday that “there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs” and that an “implementation area” was “no longer around.”
Last week, Trump declined to answer a question about his endgame in Venezuela, even as he again raised the threat of land strikes and said it’d be “smart” for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to step down.
Maduro has repeatedly criticized the US military deployment in the Caribbean and accused the United States of waging a campaign of “psychological terrorism” against his country.
In a response to Trump ordering a “complete” blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela earlier this month, Venezuela’s National Assembly approved a law last week that allows for prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone found supporting “piracy” or “blockades.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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CNN’s Clay Voytek, Kevin Liptak, Donald Judd, Alessandra Freitas, Verónica Calderón and Sol Amaya contributed to this report.
