On May 26, at the direction of the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.  Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. One male narco-terrorist was killed during this action, and there were 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.

On May 26, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. One male narco-terrorist was killed during this action, and there were 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. @DeptofWar @USCG #OpSouthernSpear

Moment the U.S. attacks a drug-running speedboat in the Pacific (video) During the attack, one of the drug traffickers was killed; two others are believed to have survived. https://soy502.com/articulo/momento-eeuu-ataca-narcolancha-pacifico-101026…

Momento en que EE.UU. ataca una "narcolancha" en el Pacífico (video) Durante el ataque uno de los narcotraficantes murió, se cree que dos más sobrevivieron https://soy502.com/articulo/momento-eeuu-ataca-narcolancha-pacifico-101026…

The precise attack by the US Southern Command on a drug-running speedboat that left one dead (VIDEO) https://buff.ly/2nbLPBN #LaPatillaUSA

El certero ataque del Comando Sur de EEUU a narcolancha que dejó un muerto (VIDEO) https://buff.ly/2nbLPBN #LaPatillaUSA

Relentless bombings. One person died and two were left adrift at sea after the U.S. military bombed what it called a "drug trafficking vessel" on Tuesday, May 26, U.S. Southern Command reported. "A male narco-terrorist was killed during this action and there were two survivors," wrote SOUTHCOM, responsible for U.S. military operations in the region. The nationality of the boat's occupants was not reported.

Bombardeos imparables. Una persona murió y dos quedaron a la deriva en el mar luego de que el ejército estadounidense bombardeara el martes 26 de mayo lo que llamó una "embarcación del narcotráfico", informó el Comando Sur de Estados Unidos.  "Un narcoterrorista de sexo masculino murió durante esta acción y hubo dos sobrevivientes", escribió en X el SOUTHCOM, responsables de los operativos militares estadounidenses en la región. No se informó la nacionalidad de los ocupantes de la lancha.

One dead and two survivors in new US attack on a drug boat in the Eastern Pacific

Un muerto y dos sobrevivientes dejó nuevo ataque de Estados Unidos a una narcolancha en el Pacífico Oriental

The United States Southern Command (@Southcom) confirmed that it carried out a deadly attack on Tuesday, May 26, against a vessel linked to terrorist organizations and drug trafficking operations in the Pacific. The operation resulted in one death and two surviving terrorists.

El Comando Sur de Estados Unidos @Southcom confirmó que ejecutó un ataque letal este martes 26 de mayo, contra una embarcación vinculada a organizaciones terroristas y operaciones de narcotráfico en el Pacífico. La operación dejó 1 asesinado y 2 terroristas sobrevivientes

One person was killed in the U.S. military’s 58th strike against vessels it accused of smuggling drugs.Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, the head of the Southern Command, ordered the strike. Photo Credit...Eric Lee for The New York TimesMay 27, 2026Updated 10:27 a.m. The U.S. military conducted an airstrike on Tuesday against a vessel it accused of smuggling drugs, killing one person and leaving two survivors in the eastern Pacific, U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post.The result of the strike was unusual. There have rarely been survivors in the 58 attacks against boats the United States has claimed were engaged in drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. And in all but two cases, survivors were lost at sea.Military experts say the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings.The strike on Tuesday, the first in nearly three weeks after the military accelerated its recent pace of attacks, brought the death toll to at least 194 since September. Bad weather has hampered strike operations in recent weeks, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, the head of the Southern Command, ordered the strike, the command said in a statement on social media, which included a 19-second video showing a boat speeding along in the water and then exploding.Southern Command said in its social media post that it had notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate a “Search and Rescue system.” A second U.S. official said on Wednesday that the Mexican Navy was in charge of the search for the survivors.Citing unspecified intelligence, the U.S. military claimed that the boat was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”The Trump administration has not provided evidence that the boats that have been attacked were involved in drug smuggling.Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades. Contact him securely on Signal: ericschmitt.36.

Death toll from U.S. boat strikes on alleged drug boats climbs after recent survivors not found The death toll from the Trump administration's monthslong series of strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean has risen to at least 199 people after survivors of recent attacks were not found. The total includes at least 22 people who had survived an initial strike only to be hit again or die at sea during the campaign that began last September. That includes three people who survived two separate strikes this month, according to the U.S. military, including two people who survived a strike this week in the eastern Pacific. U.S. Southern Command says it notifies the U.S. Coast Guard of any survivors of such attacks, but those reports largely appear to be passed on to countries closer to the actual strike location. When asked about any recent search and rescue efforts, Mexico's navy said it had received an alert from the U.S. Coast Guard about the strikes this month but it did not mention survivors. The U.S. Coast Guard referred requests for more information to Mexico's authorities. The strikes have been contentious, with the Trump administration declaring that the U.S. is at war with Latin American drug cartels. The first attack in the campaign occurred on Sept. 2. In early December, however, the Trump administration came under heavy scrutiny after it confirmed a Washington Post report that in that Sept. 2 attack, the U.S. had conducted a follow-on strike, or "double tap," that killed two survivors of the initial strike on the vessel. Some lawmakers questioned whether the follow-on strike constituted a war crime. The Pentagon's watchdog said this month that it plans to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out its strikes. However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what's known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not the legality of the strikes, the inspector general's office said. To date, only three people are known to have survived strikes and then been rescued. Two were rescued from a "narco sub" accused of carrying drugs in October and later returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia. In March, the U.S. Coast Guard said it recovered a survivor of a strike that killed two others and transferred the survivor to Costa Rican authorities. Earlier this year, the families of two Trinidadian men who were killed in a U.S. missile strike on a boat in the Caribbean sued the Trump administration in federal court, arguing the "premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification." In December, the relatives of 42-year-old Alejandro Carranza Medina filed a complaint against the U.S. with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, saying Medina was not involved in drug trafficking and had been fishing when his boat was destroyed.