The United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) on Wednesday revealed that it carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” against a drug boat engaged in narco-trafficking operations in the Eastern Pacific, killing two male individuals identified as narco-terrorists.
Wednesday’s strike is the fifth such military strike against a drug-trafficking vessel disclosed by SOUTHCOM in May 2026 and is part of Operation Southern Spear, an ongoing U.S. military counter-narco-terrorism security campaign. In an official statement, SOUTHCOM detailed that the operation was carried out by Joint Task Force Southern Spear at the direction of Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the statement read in part. “Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.”
SOUTHCOM shared a 12-second unclassified video of the kinetic strike on a social media post Wednesday.
Operation Southern Spear, announced by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth last year, aims to detect, disrupt, and degrade transnational criminal and illicit maritime networks, curbing the flow of dangerous drugs seeking to enter the United States. On Tuesday, SOUTHCOM announced that it had carried out a separate lethal kinetic strike on another drug trafficking vessel transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific. Tuesday’s strike left one male narco-terrorist dead and two survivors.
“Following the engagement, USSOUTHCOM immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors. No U.S. military forces were harmed,” SOUTHCOM said on Tuesday.
At press time, the kinetic strikes against drug-trafficking vessels carried out under Operation Southern Spear have reportedly killed at least 196 individuals identified as narco-terrorists while they were engaged in drug trafficking operations in Caribbean and Eastern Pacific waters.
In the months since the launch of Operation Southern Spear, U.S.-friendly Latin American countries have collaborated more with the United States’s efforts to fight drug trafficking organizations and curb the flow of drugs transiting through the region as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline stance against deadly drugs entering the United States and harming Americans.
More recently, the government of Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo reportedly reached an agreement with the United States to allow U.S. military forces to conduct joint strikes in Guatemalan territory against drug trafficking groups operating in the country. According to the left-wing New York Times, President Arevalo agreed to the airstrikes and other U.S. military actions in Guatemala in a telephone conversation with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth last week. The operations, according to the newspaper, could start as early as next month. Guatemala’s new joint counter-cartel operations with the United States come nearly three months after Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa signed a similar agreement in March.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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