A UN report has concluded that recent US airstrikes on vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking may have breached international law and could constitute crimes against humanity. The report, authored by Special Rapporteur Ben Saul, indicates that since September of the previous year, there have been at least 68 US strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, resulting in over 220 fatalities. Saul stated that even if the targets were identified as members of designated terrorist groups, they had not conducted an armed attack on the US, which would justify a right to self-defense under international law.
The report follows a US military announcement of a strike that killed four individuals on a vessel in the Caribbean, which the military claimed was involved in narco-trafficking. Southcom, the command overseeing US forces in the region, stated that confirmed intelligence indicated the vessel's active involvement in drug trafficking.
In a briefing note released by the UN Human Rights Council, Saul remarked that these attacks could be characterized as serial extrajudicial killings, violating the right to life and lacking justification under national or personal self-defense, international humanitarian law, the international law of the sea, narcotics suppression conventions, or international counter-terrorism law.
Saul concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the 68 reported attacks, which resulted in 223 deaths, could be classified as crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law. BBC News has reached out to the White House and State Department for comments regarding the report.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously stated that the operation aims to eliminate 'narco-terrorists from our hemisphere' and protect the US from drugs. The US military initiated the operation, termed 'Southern Spear', in early September. However, officials have not provided definitive evidence linking the targeted vessels to trafficking activities. The legality of the strikes has been questioned by experts and has faced criticism from Latin American leaders whose citizens have been affected.
Additionally, Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader at the time, opposed the strikes and was later apprehended by US forces in a controversial raid in Caracas earlier this year. Another critic of Operation Southern Spear, Colombia's former left-wing president Gustavo Petro, stepped down in August after a Trump-backed candidate won the presidential election in June.