The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that hopes are dimming for finding survivors who jumped into the eastern Pacific Ocean after alleged drug-smuggling boats were attacked by the U.S. military earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Search efforts began Tuesday afternoon after the military alerted the Coast Guard that people were believed to be in the water roughly 400 miles southwest of the Mexico\u2013Guatemala border. According to a Coast Guard statement, aircraft were dispatched from Sacramento to scan an area spanning more than 1,000 miles, while emergency alerts were issued to vessels operating nearby.<\/p>\n
The maritime service said it coordinated more than 65 hours of search-and-rescue operations, working alongside international partners and civilian ships in the region. Harsh conditions hampered the mission, with crews facing seas up to nine feet high and winds reaching 40 knots.<\/p>\n
U.S. authorities have not disclosed how many people jumped overboard, nor how many may have died if the search ends without recoveries. The incident follows a series of military strikes ordered under President Donald Trump targeting small vessels accused of transporting narcotics in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the U.S. military said it struck three boats traveling along what it described as known narco-trafficking routes, claiming the vessels had transferred drugs among themselves prior to the attacks. No evidence was publicly released to support the allegation.<\/p>\n
U.S. Southern Command said three people were killed when the first boat was hit, while occupants of the other two vessels reportedly jumped into the water and distanced themselves before those boats were attacked. The strikes occurred in a remote part of the Pacific where no U.S. Navy ships were operating, prompting Southern Command to immediately request Coast Guard assistance for search-and-rescue operations.<\/p>\n
The involvement of the Coast Guard comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the military\u2019s tactics. In September, U.S. forces faced criticism after a follow-up strike killed survivors aboard a disabled boat. Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts described that action as unlawful, while the Trump administration and Republican allies defended it as legal under the administration\u2019s interpretation of armed conflict with drug cartels.<\/p>\n
Other survivors have emerged from previous strikes. In late October, the Mexican Navy suspended a search for a survivor after four days, while two others rescued from a Caribbean incident were repatriated to Ecuador and Colombia. Ecuadorian authorities later released one of the men, citing a lack of evidence linking him to criminal activity.<\/p>\n
Since early September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 35 known strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels, resulting in a reported minimum of 115 deaths, according to figures released by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
President Trump has defended the campaign as a necessary escalation to curb drug flows into the United States, arguing that the country is engaged in an \u201carmed conflict\u201d with transnational cartels. Alongside the strikes, Washington has expanded its military presence in the region as part of broader pressure on Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who faces narco-terrorism charges in the United States.<\/p>\n
As search operations continue under increasingly slim odds, questions persist over accountability, legality, and the human toll of the intensifying maritime campaign.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that hopes are dimming for finding survivors who jumped into the eastern Pacific Ocean after alleged drug-smuggling boats were attacked by the U.S. military earlier this week. Search efforts began Tuesday afternoon after the military alerted the Coast Guard that people were believed to be in the water roughly<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_1160854738579181570_1160854738579181570":"","facebook_3558452337540614_100649324928663":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,54],"tags":[2608,2356,2601,2605,2607,2427,2426,2606,2602,2603,1097,2599,2600,2604,2355],"class_list":["post-14889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-americans","category-social","tag-drug-cartels","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-eastern-pacific","tag-human-rights-concerns","tag-international-waters","tag-latin-america","tag-maritime-security","tag-military-strikes","tag-narco-trafficking-routes","tag-search-and-rescue","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s-coast-guard","tag-u-s-military-operations","tag-u-s-southern-command","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"\n