U.S. Military Campaign Kills 156 in 45 Boat Strikes

Between September 2025 and May 2026, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted 45 lethal strikes on small vessels in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing or presuming dead 156 people. Targets are vessels linked to cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations under a January 2025 presidential order. The casualty toll ranks among the deadliest U.S. military interdiction campaigns in the Western Hemisphere recently, though federal courts have not yet reviewed the legal foundation for these killings.