An Unprecedented Day in the Anti-Drug Offensive
In an announcement that marks a turning point in the security strategy, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Pete Hegseth, revealed this Tuesday the execution of three consecutive military operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean. These interventions, directed against four suspected drug trafficking vessels, resulted in the death of fourteen alleged drug traffickers and one survivor, constituting the deadliest day since the beginning of the controversial campaign of President Donald Trump’s government against drug trafficking in South American waters.
This is the first time that multiple actions have been reported in a single day, representing a significant escalation in the pace and intensity of the attacks. The campaign, which spans almost two months along with an increase in the US military presence, has generated increasing diplomatic tension with traditional allies in the region and has fueled speculation about whether the ultimate goal of these measures is to bring about the overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington has publicly accused of narcoterrorism.
Coordination and Controversy in the Response
According to a Pentagon statement provided by an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the strikes were carried out on Monday off the coast of Colombia. After neutralizing one of the boats, US forces spotted a person alive in the water, clinging to the remains of the boat. Immediately, the Army transmitted the precise location of the survivor to the United States Coast Guard and a Mexican military aircraft that was operating in the area, according to the source.
Secretary Hegseth stated that the Mexican authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the individual, although he refrained from specifying whether the person had already been rescued, whether he would remain in Mexican custody or whether he would be transferred to the United States for interrogation or legal processing.
However, the Mexican Navy Secretariat (Semar) reported on Tuesday, a day after the operations, that it was still carrying out a search and rescue operation. These new attacks unleashed a new wave of criticism from this regional ally. The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, expressed her disagreement with these actions in her morning press conference and revealed that she had instructed the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Navy to meet with the US ambassador in Mexico. “We want all international treaties to be respected,” the president stressed.
Semar, through its official account on the social network
An Increasingly Tense Diplomatic Panorama
The military offensive has also deteriorated relations with other historical partners such as Colombia, a country whose intelligence is essential for United States counternarcotics operations in the region. In a growing confrontation between the Republican president and Colombia’s first leftist leader, the Trump administration last Friday imposed sanctions on President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his cabinet, accusing them of participating in the global drug trade.
President Petro openly criticized the attacks on social network X, arguing that they represent a disproportionate use of force, turning “casualties into murders.” From Saudi Arabia, the Colombian president questioned whether the true objective of the United States is the seizure of cocaine and suggested that in reality an “invasion is intended, which is also absurdly illegal and aims more at oil than at defending North American society from illicit drugs.”
To support the actions, Hegseth published audiovisual material of the attacks on his social networks, where two speed boats can be seen moving at high speed, one of them visibly loaded with a large number of bales. Both boats suddenly explode and are engulfed in flames. A third attack appears to show a pair of nearly empty boats, with at least two people moving around in them moments before an explosion consumes them. The Secretary of Defense added that “the four boats were known to our intelligence apparatus, traveling along known drug trafficking routes and transporting narcotics.”
However, the Trump administration has so far not presented public evidence to support its claims about the connection of these ships to drug trafficking groups or about the identity of the people killed in these operations, which began in early September and until now occurred several weeks apart.
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