The families of Ecuadorian fishermen detained or missing after US forces sank three vessels in the Eastern Pacific are demanding answers, alleging that their relatives were innocent fishermen rather than drug traffickers. The incidents have intensified scrutiny of the Trump administration's expanding maritime interdiction campaign, which has now resulted in multiple deaths and detentions in international — and, some relatives claim, Ecuadorian — waters.

Ecuador's government defended the operations, with Interior Minister John Reimberg telling the broadcaster Teleamazonas that the vessels served as floating refuelling stations supporting speedboats moving narcotics northward toward Mexico and the United States. "This is work carried out through international cooperation," Reimberg said. The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) corroborated the official account, stating that it had "successfully interdicted a vessel operating as a floating refuelling station in support of illicit at-sea drug trafficking operations" linked to Los Choneros, a powerful Ecuadorian criminal organisation that Washington designates as a terrorist group. SOUTHCOM released a video showing forces boarding a vessel before it was destroyed, though the footage's time and location could not be independently verified.

However, relatives of the crew members paint a starkly different picture. One woman, who identified herself only as Rosalba, 47, told reporters by phone that the men had been fishing when boarded and that no drugs were found. She alleged the vessel was intercepted in Ecuadorian, not international, waters and accused Washington of acting arbitrarily and violating the fishermen's rights. Her account has not been independently verified. Ecuador's navy confirmed that 28 crew members recovered from two of the sunk vessels arrived at Manta — the country's main fishing port, located on Ecuador's Pacific coast — aboard a coastguard vessel, though the fate of at least eight others remains unclear, with their families alleging possible US drone strikes or detention.

The incidents are the latest in a broader US campaign against maritime drug trafficking that has drawn mounting concern across Latin America. SOUTHCOM previously confirmed a strike on August 23 that killed two people, followed by another that killed four two days later; neither set of victims has been publicly identified. An unreleased memo obtained by US media reportedly shows that President Donald Trump has declared the United States to be in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug-trafficking organisations, a legal framing that human rights groups say could be used to justify lethal force with reduced accountability.

The episode highlights a deepening tension between Washington's counter-narcotics objectives and the rights of coastal communities in Ecuador, a country that has faced a severe surge in gang-related violence in recent years. Critics argue that the use of airstrikes and explosive vessel sinkings on the high seas, without transparent evidence or judicial oversight, risks harming civilian mariners and eroding protections under international maritime law.