Geneva — The United Nations human rights chief said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a U.N. organization.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk’s office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular U.N. briefing: “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”
President Trump has justified the attacks on what his administration calls “narco-trafficking vessels” as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S., but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign on Wednesday. He said it targeted a boat carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Four people on board the vessel were killed. It was the 14th strike and the 15th boat destroyed since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.
In some but not all of the strikes, U.S. officials have said the boats were linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a terrorist organization.
The administration announced just weeks ago that it had determined the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels it has designated as terrorist organizations, including Tren de Aargua.
Pete Hegseth/X
The administration announced that determination in a notification to Congress in September, after the first couple strikes on alleged drug boats in the Mediterranean. That notice referred to three individuals killed in a Sept. 15 strike “unlawful combatants,” which is the same term former President George W. Bush’s administration used to describe members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.
After Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress authorized the use of military force against the terrorist organizations responsible for the terrorist attacks carried out that day. Congress has not yet authorized the use of military force to target drug cartels, and many details of the operations remain unclear, including which U.S. forces are carrying out the strikes, based on what specific intelligence, and with what weapons.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been among the most vocal critics of the strikes, questioning their legality under international law, and their efficacy in combating the gangs that traffic narcotics during an interview with CBS News. The Trump administration sanctioned Petro last week, saying he had allowed “drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”
Shamdasani noted the U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.
Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”
The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.
