The United States has eliminated three individuals linked to drug trafficking.

U.S. Forces have sunk three alleged drug‑running boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, in attacks that left 11 people dead, according to U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. Military operations in Latin America. The strikes came after the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford departed the Caribbean; it had been sent there in October as part of Operation Southern Spear, an anti‑narcotics mission the Trump administration used to pressure Venezuela in the months leading up to the operation that captured president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas on January 3.

According to a statement from Southern Command, the three attacks were carried out late Monday against alleged “narco‑terrorists,” in the Trump administration’s words. Two of the strikes took place in the eastern Pacific, each killing four men. In the third attack, in the Caribbean, three people were killed. “No U.S. Military forces were harmed,” the military command said.

“At the direction of the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” Southern Command said in the statement, which — as has become customary — was accompanied by a video showing the boats exploding after being hit by a missile. “Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” it added.

The latest strikes came as new U.S. Strikes resumed, with prior strikes targeting vessels and reasserting control, as prior engagements were reconfirmed.

The U.S. Government’s pressure was what spurred allied groups aligned with The Cuban government (such as Progressive International or Code Pink) to call for [[INLINE_0]], even though the blockade is not as severe and the frequent comparison of Cuba to Gaza is entirely unfounded—yet none of that was enough. It took Washington’s pressure to prompt allied government organizations (such as Progressive International or Code Pink) to summon [[INLINE_0]], even though the blockade isn’t as severe and Cuba’s repeated comparison to Gaza is in no way valid. And it is this same pressure that has turned the call for humanitarian aid into [[INLINE_1]] that loudly proclaims the need to ￰DNP0000￱. That the power to mobilize non-Cubans on Cuba’s behalf rests with The United States is, among other things, the clearest indication that a substantial segment of the international community is complicit in shutting down avenues for Cuban society to free itself from a dictatorial regime nearing seven decades in power.

In January, two families in Trinidad and Tobago filed the first lawsuit in U.S. Courts against the government in Washington over the deaths of two of their relatives in one of the U.S. Attacks on alleged drug‑running boats in the Caribbean on October 14.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition