Assessing the Facts and Legal Questions About the U.S. Strikes on Alleged Drug Boats

At least 61 people have been killed in 14 U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since early September. President Donald Trump has said he is targeting “narcoterrorists” who threaten American lives with lethal substances, and the administration has told Congress the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels operating in South America.

But Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona called the strikes “sanctioned murder.” And without any evidence from the administration for its claims about the cargo or the identities and affiliations of the people on the boats, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the strikes are “extrajudicial killings.”

Some legal experts, meanwhile, have said the U.S. actions were “not lawful.”

Here, we will address what is known about the targets of the strikes, the trafficking of illicit substances from South and Central America to the U.S., and what experts are saying about the legality of the Trump administration’s escalation of the war on drugs.