Rights groups are urging countries to end their complicity in the US Department of Defense’s boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, citing surveillance footage of the strikes and the harm caused to victims and their families.
Rights Groups Warn Countries to End Complicity in Trump’s High Seas Murder Spree Surveillance footage shows some the US Department of Defense’s latest strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean on February 16, 2026.
The US must immediately end these boat strikes and take accountability for the harms caused to the victims and their families. And Congress must do its job of conducting oversight to ensure transparent and independent investigations of these strikes. , there have now been 58 such boat strikes since September that have killed at least 193 people. As with the May 8 attack, the names and nationalities of most of these victims remain unknown.
The use of unlawful force will become more normalized at home and abroad unless the Trump administration is held accountable for these illegal killings and its blatant abuse of power. International and US law do not allow the use of the military to kill civilians suspected of crimes. Boat bombing on the high seas is not a legitimate law enforcement operation.
Nor is itcarry drugs, the appropriate response would be to lawfully intercept and detain the suspects and afford them due process of law. In a desperate attempt to provide legal cover for these murders, the Trump administration is asserting that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with unspecified drug cartels—the same kind of broad legal authority invoked by theBut there is no armed conflict in the Caribbean or the Pacific.
The people on those boats are civilians who are not legitimate military targets.
“You just can’t call something war to give yourself war powers,”the boat strikes. “None of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,” Türk Despite the unsubstantiated, fearmongering claims pushed by the Trump administration, investigations have shown that several of those people killed were fishermen trying to make a living for their families.
On January 20, the USSurvivors have also endured abuse. In two separate Pacific attacks on Ecuadorian fishing boats in March, 36 survivors said they were “abducted and tortured by American forces and taken by boat all the way to“They handcuffed us, put hoods over our heads and pushed us around. We were terrified they were going to kill us,”The US must immediately end these boat strikes and take accountability for the harms caused to the victims and their families.
And Congress must do its job of conducting oversight to ensure transparent and independent investigations of these strikes. The use of unlawful force will become more normalized at home and abroad unless the Trump administration is held accountable for these illegal killings and its blatant abuse of power. It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits.
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But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Farrah Hassen, J.D. , is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona, there have now been 58 such boat strikes since September that have killed at least 193 people. As with the May 8 attack, the names and nationalities of most of these victims remain unknown.
The use of unlawful force will become more normalized at home and abroad unless the Trump administration is held accountable for these illegal killings and its blatant abuse of power. International and US law do not allow the use of the military to kill civilians suspected of crimes. Boat bombing on the high seas is not a legitimate law enforcement operation.
Nor is itcarry drugs, the appropriate response would be to lawfully intercept and detain the suspects and afford them due process of law. In a desperate attempt to provide legal cover for these murders, the Trump administration is asserting that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with unspecified drug cartels—the same kind of broad legal authority invoked by theBut there is no armed conflict in the Caribbean or the Pacific.
The people on those boats are civilians who are not legitimate military targets.
“You just can’t call something war to give yourself war powers,”the boat strikes. “None of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,” Türk Despite the unsubstantiated, fearmongering claims pushed by the Trump administration, investigations have shown that several of those people killed were fishermen trying to make a living for their families.
On January 20, the USSurvivors have also endured abuse. In two separate Pacific attacks on Ecuadorian fishing boats in March, 36 survivors said they were “abducted and tortured by American forces and taken by boat all the way to“They handcuffed us, put hoods over our heads and pushed us around. We were terrified they were going to kill us,”The US must immediately end these boat strikes and take accountability for the harms caused to the victims and their families.
And Congress must do its job of conducting oversight to ensure transparent and independent investigations of these strikes. The use of unlawful force will become more normalized at home and abroad unless the Trump administration is held accountable for these illegal killings and its blatant abuse of power.
Democrats File Resolution to Stop Trump's Strikes Against Boats in Caribbean ›White House Claims Trump 'Has the Authority to Kill' Survivors of Boat Strikes ›Trump Blockade of Venezuela, Murders on High Seas Violate International Law: UN Experts ›Farrah Hassen, J.D. , is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona, there have now been 58 such boat strikes since September that have killed at least 193 people.
As with the May 8 attack, the names and nationalities of most of these victims remain unknown. The use of unlawful force will become more normalized at home and abroad unless the Trump administration is held accountable for these illegal killings and its blatant abuse of power. International and US law do not allow the use of the military to kill civilians suspected of crimes. Boat bombing on the high seas is not a legitimate law enforcement operation.
Nor is itcarry drugs, the appropriate response would be to lawfully intercept and detain the suspects and afford them due process of law. In a desperate attempt to provide legal cover for these murders, the Trump administration is asserting that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with unspecified drug cartels—the same kind of broad legal authority invoked by theBut there is no armed conflict in the Caribbean or the Pacific.
The people on those boats are civilians who are not legitimate military targets.
“You just can’t call something war to give yourself war powers,”the boat strikes. “None of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,” Türk Despite the unsubstantiated, fearmongering claims pushed by the Trump administration, investigations have shown that several of those people killed were fishermen trying to make a living for their families.
On January 20, the USSurvivors have also endured abuse. In two separate Pacific attacks on Ecuadorian fishing boats in March, 36 survivors said they were “abducted and tortured by American forces and taken by boat all the way to“They handcuffed us, put hoods over our heads and pushed us around. We were terrified they were going to kill us,”The US must immediately end these boat strikes and take accountability for the harms caused to the victims and their families.
And Congress must do its job of conducting oversight to ensure transparent and independent investigations of these strikes. The use of unlawful force will become more normalized at home and abroad unless the Trump administration is held accountable for these illegal killings and its blatant abuse of power.
Democrats File Resolution to Stop Trump's Strikes Against Boats in Caribbean ›White House Claims Trump 'Has the Authority to Kill' Survivors of Boat Strikes ›Trump Blockade of Venezuela, Murders on High Seas Violate International Law: UN Experts › The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different.
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US Department Of Defense Boat Strikes Rights Groups International Law Armed Conflict Drug Cartels Civilian Casualties Fishing Boats Survivors Torture Accountability Oversight Illegal Killings Blatant Abuse Of Power Normalization Of Unlawful Force
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