United Nations experts issued one on Tuesday opinion Calls for an end to the US military’s unlawful attacks and killings on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific. The experts stated that these attacks occurred over the course of a year – which resumed in August after a month-long break – were not justifiable under international humanitarian law.
The experts stated: “These systematic killings seriously violate the fundamental obligation to respect the right to life. International law does not allow governments to simply murder suspected criminals at sea… Nor can police on United States territory execute people on the streets.”
The campaignsynchronized Operation Southern Spear by the U.S. began on September 2, 2025, when the U.S. military attacked a small boat in the Caribbean, killing everyone on board to “eliminate the threat” they posed. The US Department of Defense said in a statement report In late March, he told Congress that the purpose of the operation was to disrupt the flow of drugs from drug cartels designated as designated terrorist organizations (DTOs) through deadly airstrikes. In the year since the initial attack, some 227 people have been killed by the U.S. military, none of whom have been formally charged with a crime or previously imprisoned.
In its report, the Defense Department acknowledged that Congress had not authorized the use of military force against the suspected human traffickers, but pointed out that US law allows the president to act in the face of a “National emergency arose from an attack on the United States.” This criterion was allegedly met with the publication of a certificate by US President Trump in January 2025 Implementing regulation (EO) proclaims that the activities of “transnational criminal organizations” constitute “insurgency and asymmetric warfare” against the United States.
The UN experts completely rejected the US government’s justification for the attacks, noting that drug cartels and gangs do not carry out armed attacks against the United States and therefore have no right to self-defense Article 51 the Charter of the United Nations.
Since cartels are not within the scope Non-international armed conflict (NIAC)Martial law does not apply and cannot be used to justify a deadly military intervention, the experts said. They also claimed that these unilateral attacks were unlawful under the provisions of international law. International human rights law Provides that lethal force may only be used in self-defense when absolutely necessary to avert an imminent threat to life International maritime law Combating human trafficking requires law enforcement intervention, not the military.
Human rights group Amnesty International has also done so sentenced the US attacks, called the attacks illegal and criticized US lawmakers for their lack of accountability.
A special rapporteur has specified that they had been in contact with the US government about the legal issues raised by the attacks.
Cartels are supposed to fuel this Drug crisis in the USA primarily through operations in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, with large groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) flooding American communities with it deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine.
