USA: Death Toll in Campaign of Extrajudicial Killings at Sea Nears 200

The U.S. Congress and the international community must take immediate action to stop the U.S. military’s unconscionable campaign of extrajudicial killings at sea and push for accountability, as the death toll nears 200.

Since September 2025, the U.S. Southern Command has carried out nearly 60 air strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 196 people so far. These actions, committed against people who pose no imminent threat to life, are extrajudicial killings, a form of murder, and amount to crimes under international law.

“With nearly 200 killings, these extrajudicial killings are becoming normalized,” said Amnesty International USA’s National Director for Government Relations, Amanda Klasing. “Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral. People of good conscience cannot allow this to continue, yet Congress has so far failed to halt, or even slow down, this lethal and unlawful campaign.”

Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral. People of good conscience cannot allow this to continue, yet Congress has so far failed to halt, or even slow down, this lethal and unlawful campaign.”

Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA’s National Director for Government Relations.

The first extrajudicial killings of the campaign took place on September 2, 2025, with an air strike against a boat in the Caribbean that killed at least 11 people in what remains the deadliest single strike yet.

Since then, the U.S. has expanded its bombings to the Eastern Pacific, conducting an average of six strikes per month across both regions. The deadliest month was October 2025, with 45 people killed in 11 air strikes, including 15 people killed in three air strikes on October 27, the deadliest single day of the campaign. Already this year, the U.S. military has killed over 70 people, including at least nine in the last month.

“Numbers alone cannot capture the unimaginable human toll of this horrific campaign of murder at sea. Every single person that the U.S. has killed at sea was arbitrarily deprived of their right to life, and they and their families have a right to justice. Lawmakers must do everything in their power to halt this campaign and hold everyone responsible accountable for their role in these extrajudicial killings,” said Amanda Klasing.

The administration’s justifications for these air strikes have been shambolic. White House officials have claimed, without presenting any evidence or even naming a single victim, that the targets are drug traffickers or “narco-terrorists” with whom the U.S. is at war. But the U.S. is not engaged in any armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere which might justify these bombings, and the administration has yet to even say who the supposed “narco-terrorist” groups are. When Virginia Senator Tim Kaine questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in an April Senate hearing about the utter lack of information about who the U.S. military is killing, Hegseth merely referenced that the targets had affiliations with unspecified “designated terrorist organizations,” but did not indicate that the U.S. actually knows the identities of its victims.

U.S. authorities have chosen not to prosecute any air strike survivors either, suggesting that, should claims of trafficking be true, they do not have enough evidence to win a case against them, and have instead released people captured alive without charge. When Congressman Bill Keating raised concerns to Secretary Hegseth in a House Armed Services Committee hearing about the unlawfulness of the strikes and alleged U.S. interdictions, Hegseth simply dismissed the questions as “false accusations.”

“We are witnessing the height of lawlessness — a government taking military action to kill people who it unilaterally deems ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’ and then bragging about it on social media and stonewalling members of Congress demanding explanations. Regardless of whether the victims committed crimes or not, killing them is completely illegal under both U.S. and international law. Alleged criminal suspects should be dealt with by law enforcement who are bound by international human rights law, which prohibits using lethal force unless absolutely necessary based on an imminent threat to life,” said Amanda Klasing.

These air strikes take place amid a military buildup in the Western Hemisphere unprecedented in recent history. Secretary Hegseth’s geopolitical frame of a “Greater North America” encompassing all sovereign countries and territories north of the equator within an “immediate security perimeter,” alongside messages from the White House to leaders in the region to ignore international human rights law, raises serious concerns about the actions the administration is willing to take in the region.

“We call on Congress to urgently utilize all legislative and oversight mechanisms available to stop these air strikes and stop enabling and promoting the militarization of public security in the Americas, which can only lead to greater human rights violations such as the ones documented in Mexico and Ecuador. U.S. military actions in the Americas and anywhere, no matter the purported goal, cannot come at the expense of human rights,” said Daniel Noroña, Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy Director for the Americas.

We call on Congress to urgently utilize all legislative and oversight mechanisms available to stop these air strikes and stop enabling and promoting the militarization of public security in the Americas,  U.S. military actions, cannot come at the expense of human rights,” 

Daniel Noroña, Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy Director for the Americas.

Amnesty International is also calling for the international community to hold the U.S. government accountable.

“Beyond U.S. authorities, we need to see leadership from other governments in the region, as well as the Organization of American States,” said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International. “The international community must speak out firmly against these murders, which constitute a serious threat to human rights and respect for international law. Governments must immediately suspend intelligence sharing that may contribute to these operations. They further should suspend export licenses to any defense material that could be used to perpetuate these murders.”

The international community must speak out firmly against these murders, which constitute a serious threat to human rights and respect for international law. Governments must immediately suspend intelligence sharing that may contribute to these operations. ”

Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org

The post USA: Death Toll in Campaign of Extrajudicial Killings at Sea Nears 200 appeared first on Amnesty International.