WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the U.S. military has carried out three strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean on four boats accused of carrying drugs, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor on the deadliest single day since the Trump administration began its divisive campaign against drug trafficking in the waters off South America.
It was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day as the pace of the attacks has escalated. The nearly two-month campaign and U.S. military buildup have strained ties with allies in the region and opened speculation that the moves are aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. has accused of narcoterrorism.
A statement provided by a Pentagon official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the operation, said the strikes were conducted off the coast of Colombia on Monday. Following one attack on a boat, the military spotted a person in the water clinging to some wreckage.
The military passed the survivor’s precise location to the U.S. Coast Guard and a Mexican military aircraft that was operating in the area, the official said.
Hegseth said Mexican search and rescue authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the sole survivor but didn’t say if that person was successfully rescued or would stay in Mexico's custody or be handed over to the U.S.
Mexico is still conducting a search for the survivor and criticizes the strikes
Mexico's navy still was attempting a search and rescue operation, the military said in a statement Tuesday, a day after the strikes occurred. The American attacks drew renewed criticism from the regional ally.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said during her daily press conference that she asked the foreign affairs secretary and the navy to meet with the U.S. ambassador in Mexico to discuss the issue because “we do not agree with these attacks.”
“We want all international treaties to be respected,” she said.
The strikes also have strained ties with other historic allies like Colombia, a country whose intelligence is crucial to American anti-narcotics operations in the region. In an escalating clash between the Republican U.S. president and Colombia’s first leftist leader, the Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade.
In a strike earlier this month with two survivors, the U.S. military rescued the pair and repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador. Authorities released the Ecuadorian man after prosecutors said they had no evidence he committed a crime in Ecuador.
Hegseth posted footage of the latest strikes to social media in which two boats can be seen moving through the water in separate clips. One is visibly laden with a large amount of parcels or bundles. Both then suddenly explode and are seen in flames.
The third strike appears to have been conducted on a pair of boats that were stationary in the water alongside each other. They appear to be largely empty, with at least two people seen moving before an explosion engulfs both boats.
Hegseth said “the four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.”
The Trump administration has shown no evidence to support its claims about the boats, their connection to drug cartels, or even the identity of the people killed in the strikes that began in early September and had been spaced weeks apart.
Fatalities rise as speculation swirls about the US campaign
The death toll from the 13 disclosed strikes has increased to at least 57 people. The Trump administration said several of the strikes have been off the coast of Venezuela or blamed them on the Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in a Venezuelan prison and has been declared a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S.
After the Pentagon announced Friday that it was dispatching an aircraft carrier to join the eight warships and thousands of troops already in the region, Maduro said the U.S. government was “fabricating” a war against him.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted the U.S. is taking part in a counterdrug operation, while also accusing Maduro’s government of allowing and participating in the shipment of narcotics.
The U.S. military falso lew a pair of supersonic heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela.
President Donald Trump has said he has the “legal authority” to carry out the attacks on the alleged drug-carrying boats and suggested similar strikes could be done on land.
In his announcement of the latest strikes, Hegseth continued to draw parallels between the military’s actions against drug trafficking and the war on terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
He claimed that cartels “have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same."
Trump has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and proclaiming the criminal organizations to be unlawful combatants, relying on the same legal authority used by President George W. Bush’s administration for the war on terrorism.
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Associated Press writers María Verza and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.