US government will investigate itself over ‘narco-boat’ war crime allegations
The inspector general of the US Department of War will investigate whether America’s ‘narco-terrorist’ boat strikes are war crimes. US attacks on alleged cartel smugglers have been [carried out](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/13/us-war-crime/) in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September 2025.
The bombings were seen as precursor attacks to the 3 January raid which saw Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro [kidnapped](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/30/is-maduro-a-prisoner-of-war/) by US special forces. Yet the strikes have continued well into 2026.
The NGO Airwars [says](https://airwars.org/conflict/u-s-military-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/) there have been 193 deaths across 56 incidents. The US maintains killings have been legal. Many legal experts [say](https://www.justsecurity.org/120753/collection-u-s-lethal-strikes-on-suspected-drug-traffickers/) this is patently untrue.
The inquiry [aims to](https://media.defense.gov/2026/May/14/2003930421/-1/-1/1/D2026-DEV0PD-0091.000_REDACTED.PDF):
> determine whether DoW Components followed the established framework of the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle when conducting targeting operations in the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility.
[Adding](https://media.defense.gov/2026/May/14/2003930421/-1/-1/1/D2026-DEV0PD-0091.000_REDACTED.PDF):
> We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds, and we will also consider suggestions from
> management for additional or revised objectives.
Sean Parnell, then-chief spokesperson at the Pentagon, [said](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/19/defense-department-inquiry-airstrikes-alleged-drug-boats) in November 2025:
> Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.
The most recent strike was on 8 May. The US shared footage on social media:
> On May 8, at the direction of [#SOUTHCOM](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SOUTHCOM) commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking… [pic.twitter.com/YFLQNZufRx](https://t.co/YFLQNZufRx)
>
> — U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) [May 9, 2026](https://twitter.com/Southcom/status/2052903226177913031)
US hemispheric plans
--------------------
US belligerence across the Americas has increased under Trump. This has included [brinkmanship over Greenland](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/19/trump-greenland/), rumours of [an invasion of Canada](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/22/canada-prepares-for-us-invasion/) and [threats against Cuba](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/02/10/trump-cuba-mexico/).
The CIA recently killed a mid-level cartel boss with a car bomb in Mexico City, [reports say](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/05/13/cartel-car-bomb/). The Mexican authorities claim they gave no permission for US covert operations inside their borders. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are part of this project too.
Historian Nikhil Pal Singh [wrote](https://www.equator.org/articles/homeland-empire-trump-ICE) in *Equator* magazine on 14 January 2026:
> From Venezuela to Minnesota, Trump is creating a borderless American power, collapsing the foreign and the domestic into a single domain of impunity
Singh [accused](https://www.equator.org/articles/homeland-empire-trump-ICE) Trump of conflating:
> immigrants, drugs and free trade as sources of weakness coming from outside, “poisoning the blood of our country”.
All in [a bid](https://www.equator.org/articles/homeland-empire-trump-ICE) to combine:
> the archaic geopolitics of a settler empire to the modern legal frameworks devised by his liberal predecessors.
The Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism [investigated](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/19/defense-department-inquiry-airstrikes-alleged-drug-boats) the backgrounds of 13 of those killed in ‘narco’ strikes:
> finding they came from extremely poor communities across the region, with little or no apparent connection to organized drug networks. The reporting described the victims as day laborers who took work on the boats out of desperation, not as figures with any meaningful role in the drug trade.
The US war machine will investigate itself. And the *Canary* will await the findings with bated breath. But substantial evidence already suggests the new ‘war on drugs’ is very much like the old ‘war on drugs’. It is a war on the impoverished, the displaced and the racialised, waged by a increasingly erratic and violent empire. Trump wants to remake the Americas in his own bloodthirsty image — and that is precisely what he is doing.
*Featured image via [wong yu liang](https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/image?artistexact=Wong+Yu+Liang)*
By [Joe Glenton](https://www.thecanary.co/author/joeglenton/)
---
**From [Canary](https://www.thecanary.co/feed) via [This RSS Feed](https://www.thecanary.co/feed).**
The inspector general of the US Department of War will investigate whether America’s ‘narco-terrorist’ boat strikes are war crimes. US attacks on alleged cartel smugglers have been [carried out](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/13/us-war-crime/) in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September 2025.
The bombings were seen as precursor attacks to the 3 January raid which saw Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro [kidnapped](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/30/is-maduro-a-prisoner-of-war/) by US special forces. Yet the strikes have continued well into 2026.
The NGO Airwars [says](https://airwars.org/conflict/u-s-military-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/) there have been 193 deaths across 56 incidents. The US maintains killings have been legal. Many legal experts [say](https://www.justsecurity.org/120753/collection-u-s-lethal-strikes-on-suspected-drug-traffickers/) this is patently untrue.
The inquiry [aims to](https://media.defense.gov/2026/May/14/2003930421/-1/-1/1/D2026-DEV0PD-0091.000_REDACTED.PDF):
> determine whether DoW Components followed the established framework of the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle when conducting targeting operations in the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility.
[Adding](https://media.defense.gov/2026/May/14/2003930421/-1/-1/1/D2026-DEV0PD-0091.000_REDACTED.PDF):
> We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds, and we will also consider suggestions from
> management for additional or revised objectives.
Sean Parnell, then-chief spokesperson at the Pentagon, [said](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/19/defense-department-inquiry-airstrikes-alleged-drug-boats) in November 2025:
> Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.
The most recent strike was on 8 May. The US shared footage on social media:
> On May 8, at the direction of [#SOUTHCOM](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SOUTHCOM) commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking… [pic.twitter.com/YFLQNZufRx](https://t.co/YFLQNZufRx)
>
> — U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) [May 9, 2026](https://twitter.com/Southcom/status/2052903226177913031)
US hemispheric plans
--------------------
US belligerence across the Americas has increased under Trump. This has included [brinkmanship over Greenland](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/19/trump-greenland/), rumours of [an invasion of Canada](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/22/canada-prepares-for-us-invasion/) and [threats against Cuba](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/02/10/trump-cuba-mexico/).
The CIA recently killed a mid-level cartel boss with a car bomb in Mexico City, [reports say](https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/05/13/cartel-car-bomb/). The Mexican authorities claim they gave no permission for US covert operations inside their borders. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are part of this project too.
Historian Nikhil Pal Singh [wrote](https://www.equator.org/articles/homeland-empire-trump-ICE) in *Equator* magazine on 14 January 2026:
> From Venezuela to Minnesota, Trump is creating a borderless American power, collapsing the foreign and the domestic into a single domain of impunity
Singh [accused](https://www.equator.org/articles/homeland-empire-trump-ICE) Trump of conflating:
> immigrants, drugs and free trade as sources of weakness coming from outside, “poisoning the blood of our country”.
All in [a bid](https://www.equator.org/articles/homeland-empire-trump-ICE) to combine:
> the archaic geopolitics of a settler empire to the modern legal frameworks devised by his liberal predecessors.
The Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism [investigated](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/19/defense-department-inquiry-airstrikes-alleged-drug-boats) the backgrounds of 13 of those killed in ‘narco’ strikes:
> finding they came from extremely poor communities across the region, with little or no apparent connection to organized drug networks. The reporting described the victims as day laborers who took work on the boats out of desperation, not as figures with any meaningful role in the drug trade.
The US war machine will investigate itself. And the *Canary* will await the findings with bated breath. But substantial evidence already suggests the new ‘war on drugs’ is very much like the old ‘war on drugs’. It is a war on the impoverished, the displaced and the racialised, waged by a increasingly erratic and violent empire. Trump wants to remake the Americas in his own bloodthirsty image — and that is precisely what he is doing.
*Featured image via [wong yu liang](https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/image?artistexact=Wong+Yu+Liang)*
By [Joe Glenton](https://www.thecanary.co/author/joeglenton/)
---
**From [Canary](https://www.thecanary.co/feed) via [This RSS Feed](https://www.thecanary.co/feed).**