WASHINGTON, DC – The US military announced Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time) that eight people were killed in strikes on three alleged drug boats in international waters, bringing the death toll in Washington’s campaign against what it says are narcotics traffickers to at least 115.
US Southern Command, which is responsible for American forces operating in Central and South America, said the strikes on Tuesday targeted “three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy.” All three people killed were on one boat.
The exact location of the strikes was not immediately made clear. Previous strikes have taken place in the Caribbean or the eastern Pacific.
The military said that the targeted vessels were operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” that it did not identify.
Accompanying the statement, posted on X, was a video showing three boats traveling together at sea and then hit by a series of explosions.
“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it said.
The military said it had notified the Coast Guard to “activate the Search and Rescue system,” without offering more details about the fate of those aboard the other boats.
Since September, the US military has carried out more than 30 such strikes on what it says are boats used to smuggle drugs to the United States, without providing any concrete evidence that the targeted boats are involved in trafficking.
International law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings as they have apparently targeted civilians who do not pose an immediate threat to the United States.
In recent months, US President Donald Trump has waged a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of running a drug cartel.
Maduro denies the allegation and has accused Washington of seeking regime change to gain access to the Latin American country’s massive oil reserves.
Venezuela closed the books on a complicated year for its economy, with the official cost of buying a US dollar up 479 percent in the last 12 months.
The gap between the official and black market rate is mounting as well, nearing 100 percent in an economy that has become increasingly dollarized as a way to tackle hyperinflation.
Even though President Nicolas Maduro projected economic growth of nearly nine percent in 2025, the oil-rich South American country has seen a sharp decline, with inflation soaring and hard currency in short supply.
US President Donald Trump has piled the pressure on Maduro, stiffening sanctions and ordering the seizure of “sanctioned oil vessels” sailing to and from Venezuela.
Venezuela’s central bank on Wednesday set the official rate at 301.37 bolivars to the US dollar, a rate in effect until Jan. 2. That marks a 479.25 percent increase from the rate of 52.02 bolivars to the dollar posted in early 2025.
On the black market, where prices are determined by crypto exchange platforms, one US dollar is going for nearly 560 bolivars — at least an 85 percent difference with the official rate.
Economists say that 80 percent of Venezuela’s currency exchanges are carried out on such platforms.
Inflation could ultimately pass the astronomical rate of 500 percent in 2025, according to estimates from private firms. Official data has not been published since Oct. 2024.
Venezuela has been under a US oil embargo since 2019 and exports the vast majority of its output on the black market at a sharp discount.
