HRW: 47 US Strikes on Caribbean Boats Have Killed 163 People Since September

The US military has struck 47 vessels in the Caribbean Sea since September 2025, killing at least 163 people, according to a report published Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The organisation said it documented the strikes using satellite imagery, survivor testimony and official US Coast Guard and Southern Command communications.

The dead include confirmed or suspected drug traffickers, migrants, and fishermen whose boats were misidentified, HRW said. Forty-one of the 47 strikes were carried out by US Coast Guard cutters. Six involved US Navy vessels operating under Joint Interagency Task Force South, the counter-narcotics command based in Key West, Florida.

"The pattern of force used against these vessels is grossly disproportionate and in many cases appears to constitute extrajudicial killing," said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, HRW's acting Americas director, in a statement accompanying the report.

The US Southern Command did not respond to HRW's request for comment. A Coast Guard spokesperson told the Associated Press that operations in the Caribbean "are conducted in accordance with US and international law" and that "force is used only when necessary to protect the lives of Coast Guard personnel and enforce federal law."

What the Report Found

HRW's 87-page report, titled "Dead in the Water," documented 12 incidents in detail, drawing on interviews with 34 survivors and family members of the dead, as well as radio intercepts, maritime tracking data and medical records from hospitals in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Colombia.

In one incident on November 14, 2025, a Coast Guard cutter fired on a 24-foot fishing boat 40 nautical miles south of Jamaica, killing four Haitian fishermen. No drugs were found on the vessel. The Coast Guard's after-action report, obtained by HRW through a Freedom of Information Act request, stated that the boat "failed to comply with signals to stop" and that personnel "observed what appeared to be packages being thrown overboard."

Survivors told HRW the fishermen did not understand the English-language radio commands and were hauling nets, not throwing cargo.

In another case from January 2026, a Navy destroyer fired warning shots at a migrant vessel carrying 72 Venezuelans and Haitians en route to Puerto Rico. The warning shots struck the vessel's hull. Eleven people drowned after the boat took on water and capsized. The Navy classified the incident as a "compliance engagement."

Two Audiences, Two Stories

The HRW report received front-page coverage across Latin American media. El Tiempo in Colombia ran a three-part series based on the report's findings. Listín Diario in the Dominican Republic published photographs of damaged fishing boats docked in Barahona with bullet holes in their hulls.

Telesur, the Venezuelan state-funded network, ran the story as its lead for two consecutive days, with commentary framing the strikes as evidence of US imperialism in the Caribbean. Cuban state media Granma published an editorial calling the strikes "a naval blockade against the poor."

In the United States, the report appeared on page A14 of the New York Times, in a 600-word story that led with the Coast Guard's denial. CNN's website ran an AP wire story for approximately four hours before it was replaced on the homepage by coverage of the Artemis II lunar mission. Fox News did not cover the report.

Caribbean diaspora communities in Miami and New York organised vigils Thursday evening. A coalition of Caribbean-American organisations sent a letter to the Congressional Black Caucus requesting hearings.

Legal Questions

International maritime law, codified in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, permits states to board and inspect vessels suspected of carrying narcotics. It does not authorise the use of lethal force against non-compliant vessels unless there is an imminent threat to life, according to legal analysis published alongside the HRW report by the International Commission of Jurists.

The US has not ratified UNCLOS, though it considers most of the convention's provisions to reflect customary international law. The distinction matters: customary law is harder to enforce and does not provide access to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

HRW called on the US government to suspend the use of lethal force against non-threatening vessels, establish an independent review mechanism for Caribbean maritime incidents, and compensate families of those killed in strikes where no contraband was recovered.

The Policy Background

The strikes intensified after President Trump signed an executive order in August 2025 expanding the military's role in counter-narcotics operations, including authorization to use "all necessary force" against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

US drug seizures in the Caribbean totalled 42 metric tonnes of cocaine in fiscal year 2025, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration — a record, and up from 28 tonnes in fiscal year 2024. Proponents of the policy argue the aggressive posture has disrupted trafficking routes that feed the US fentanyl and cocaine markets.

Critics, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which opened an investigation in February, argue that the collateral toll on fishermen and migrants makes the policy untenable under international human rights standards.

The families of the four Jamaican fishermen killed in the November incident have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida. A hearing is scheduled for May 12.