A United Nations report has concluded that recent U.S. airstrikes on vessels suspected of trafficking drugs breached international law and could constitute crimes against humanity. The report, by Special Rapporteur Ben Saul, stated that since September of the previous year, there have been at least 68 U.S. strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific outside of U.S. territorial waters, resulting in over 220 deaths.
Saul asserted that even if the targeted individuals were identified as members of designated terrorist groups, they had not engaged in an armed attack against the U.S. that would justify self-defense under international law. The report comes shortly after the U.S. military announced it had killed four individuals in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean.
Southcom, which oversees U.S. forces in the region, stated that intelligence indicated the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking and described the operation as having killed "four narco-terrorists." However, Saul's briefing note to the UN Human Rights Council asserted that these attacks amount to "serial extrajudicial killings" violating the right to life and are unjustified under various international legal frameworks, including the law of the sea and counter-terrorism law.
Saul concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks, which led to 223 fatalities, constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law. The U.S. Department of Defense has previously stated that the overall operation, known as "Southern Spear," aims to remove "narco-terrorists from our hemisphere" and protect the U.S. from illicit drugs. Officials have not, however, provided definitive evidence that the targeted vessels were involved in trafficking.
The legality of the strikes has been questioned since their inception, drawing criticism from leaders in Latin America whose citizens have been affected. In separate, unrelated events, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was apprehended by U.S. forces earlier this year, and Colombia's former president, Gustavo Petro, stepped down after a political shift in his country.