A United Nations human rights expert has concluded that US military strikes on vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean violate international law and may amount to crimes against humanity — a finding that escalates months of international concern over an operation the Trump administration has defended as a justified act of self-defence.
In a report published by the UN Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur Ben Saul — the UN's independent expert on human rights and counterterrorism — found that the US has conducted at least 68 strikes on small vessels in international waters since September 2025, killing at least 223 people. The latest attack, on Saturday, killed four people in the Caribbean. US Southern Command, which coordinates the strikes under a campaign known as Operation Southern Spear, described the victims as "narco-terrorists" whose vessel had been confirmed by intelligence to be involved in drug trafficking. As has become standard practice, no names were released and no detailed evidence was made public. The Pentagon has shared grainy videos of the strikes on social media but has disclosed little about victims' identities or the basis for targeting decisions.
Saul's report directly rejects the legal framing put forward by President Donald Trump, who told Congress that the operations constitute self-defence against designated terrorist organisations. The rapporteur argued that drug trafficking does not meet the legal threshold of an "armed attack" that would trigger a right to self-defence under international law. Even where targets could be identified as members of groups the US has designated as terrorist — such as the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — Saul found no factual basis that they were acting as armed proxies of a state, as international law requires. The report also noted that less-lethal alternatives, including maritime interception, have been acknowledged as feasible even by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, making the use of lethal force a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which permits it only as a last resort against an imminent threat. Going further, the report said the killings meet the legal definition of murder as a crime against humanity, given that they were carried out systematically under an organised state policy and on a large scale.
Beyond the legal questions, the report challenges the effectiveness of the campaign on its own terms. Despite Trump's claim that the strikes had halted 97% of illegal drugs entering the US by sea, available data show cocaine seizures at the US border have remained steady. Much of the region's cocaine travels in container ships that are rarely inspected, not in the small, fast-moving boats being targeted. The report also notes that the strikes have no bearing on fentanyl and opioids — the leading cause of US overdose deaths — which are not typically trafficked by sea from Venezuela. Investigators and human rights organisations have identified some victims as innocent people or, at most, low-level participants in trafficking networks. The report estimated the military operations had cost approximately $4.7 billion by mid-2026, funds it said could have been directed toward law enforcement, public health, and development programmes instead.
The findings carry significant political weight, even if the US is unlikely to face immediate legal consequences. Saul called on the United States to investigate the killings, prosecute those responsible — including political and military leaders who ordered the strikes — and provide reparations to victims' families. Early regional opposition to Operation Southern Spear has quieted somewhat: Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, who had criticised the strikes, was seized by US forces in a controversial raid on Caracas earlier this year, and Colombia's then-president Gustavo Petro, another vocal critic, left office in August after a Trump-backed candidate won June's election. The White House and State Department had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.