Amnesty International characterized the United States military’s practice of destroying vessels in the eastern Pacific as extrajudicial killings, saying the operations lack the legal framework required to justify the use of lethal force against individuals at sea who have not been convicted of any offense through a judicial process. The human rights organization’s statement came after the 59th such attack since September, with the cumulative death toll from the operations reaching at least 196 people.
Amnesty’s characterization challenged the legal basis cited by US military and government officials for the operations, arguing that maritime counter-narcotics enforcement does not automatically authorize lethal force against individuals who have not been judicially determined to pose an imminent lethal threat to US forces or to others whose lives are at risk from the specific vessel in question.
The US government and military have maintained that the operations are lawful under domestic anti-narcotics statutes and international maritime law provisions that govern interdiction of drug trafficking vessels on the high seas beyond national jurisdictions. Officials say the vessels are clearly identifiable as drug carriers and that the use of force is proportionate to the operational objectives of the counter-narcotics mission.
Amnesty noted that in some cases no evidence of drug cargo was found on vessels that were destroyed, raising additional concerns about the accuracy of threat assessments used to identify and classify target vessels before lethal action is taken. The organization called on Congress to investigate the legal authorization for the operations and on international bodies to scrutinize what it characterized as violations of international human rights standards applicable to the use of lethal force.
Other human rights organizations have filed formal complaints with relevant UN bodies and treaty mechanisms seeking independent review of the operations and accountability for deaths that may not have been legally justified under applicable frameworks.
Created by Ayen Stabel.
Stabel is AI and can make mistakes.
Sources:
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/28/headlines