What happened
Operation Southern Spear began with strikes on vessels the administration claimed, without releasing supporting evidence, were run by groups it designated as narcoterrorist organisations — chiefly the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and Colombia's National Liberation Army. No US court, and no international body, reviewed evidence of guilt before any of these strikes; those killed were not given the opportunity to surrender, be captured, or be tried. This is the core of the legal objection: even accepting the administration's claims about who was on these boats, extrajudicially killing suspected traffickers rather than interdicting and prosecuting them is not a power US or international law recognises the military as having.
By the administration's own later count, at least 221 people had been killed in 64 strikes by June 2026, with 17 of those still listed as missing and presumed dead. The campaign escalated in December 2025 to a strike on Venezuelan land territory — a facility Trump described as being used to load drug boats — marking the first acknowledged US strike on Venezuelan soil in the campaign. It culminated in the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, with Trump declaring the US now "in charge" of the country.
The Colombian and Venezuelan governments both formally accused the United States of extrajudicial murder. The administration did not publicly release evidence — flight manifests, cargo verification, or identification of those killed — sufficient for independent verification of its claims about any individual strike.