US MILITARY KILLS FIVE PEOPLE IN EASTERN PACIFIC BOAT STRIKE

The US military said it killed five people on Tuesday in an airstrike on a boat in the eastern Pacific that it alleged was carrying drugs. US Southern Command said Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere carried out the strike on 27 October. It described the boat as a “go-fast vessel” travelling along established drug trafficking routes. The command said intelligence confirmed the vessel’s involvement in trafficking, but it did not release evidence supporting that claim.

The strike forms part of a US campaign against vessels it alleges are involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Washington Office on Latin America, a US research group, recorded at least 238 deaths in 68 reported strikes before Tuesday’s attack, starting in September 2025. Other tallies put the number of attacks at more than 70 and the deaths at more than 240 during Donald Trump’s second presidency. President Trump has said the United States is in armed conflict with Latin American cartels and has justified the strikes as a way to stem the flow of drugs into the country.

The Trump administration has designated several Latin American criminal groups as foreign terrorist organisations. Legal experts and rights groups have questioned whether the strikes are lawful, arguing that the military may have targeted civilians who posed no immediate threat. Relatives of some people killed in earlier strikes have said they were fishermen or workers with no involvement in drug trafficking. US Southern Command has published videos alongside some strike announcements, describing them as footage of vessels being hit.