Southern Command Says Eastern Pacific Strike Killed Five

U.S. Southern Command said a strike on a gofast vessel in the Eastern Pacific on October 27 killed five people. The command said the boat was operating along established narcotrafficking routes and that intelligence indicated it was actively involved in trafficking. It described those killed as narcoterrorists. The military has not released evidence independently confirming that the vessel was carrying drugs. Southern Command’s account of the alleged trafficking and the five deaths was made in an announcement, and the supplied reporting did not independently establish what the boat carried. The strike is part of a U.S. campaign targeting vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that began in September 2025. A Washington Office on Latin America tracker counted at least 238 people killed in 68 reported strikes before the October 27 attack; the tracker’s cited tally appeared to rise to 243 after the five deaths. Other reports have cited campaign totals of at least 230 or 240 deaths across more than 70 strikes, using different counts and scopes. The campaign has drawn criticism from human rights organizations, legal scholars and independent U.N. experts, who have described the...