New report from WOLA documents 221 people killed on the high seas in Latin America and the Caribbean, calls for accountability 

“Killing Spree” details the U.S. military’s attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, questions the legal basis for the strikes, and points way for accountability. 

Washington, DC – Since September 2, 2025, 63 different social media posts have shown the moments when 221 people’s lives ended, as the small boats on which they were traveling exploded, as part of a campaign the Trump administration calls “Operation Southern Spear” (OSS). A new report from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) argues that these strikes are extrajudicial executions and finds that the administration has relied on a secret list of groups designated “terrorist organizations” to justify killing boat passengers—many never identified—without evidence that drugs were even aboard. 

Killing Spree: Extrajudicial Executions in the U.S. Boat Strike Campaign is the first public report to examine all aspects of the boat strikes, their harms, their costs, and a potential way forward. 

“The strikes have been so frequent that many Americans have grown numb to them,” said Adam Isacson, WOLA’s director for defense oversight and a co-author of the report. “But we need to focus on these brutal killings because they affect the U.S. role in the world, the fragility of international human rights norms, and the U.S. constitutional order. Their potential harm goes far beyond the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific.” 

The report discusses:  

• The scope, stated purpose, and death toll of what the administration calls “Operation Southern Spear,” and how starkly the killings differ from the U.S. military’s 40-plus years of maritime law enforcement operations. 

• The internal deliberations and legal maneuvers that the Trump administration underwent to start the boat strikes, over the objections of many national security professionals inside government—including an expansive definition of “terrorism.” 

• Why the boat strikes amount to “murder” under U.S. law and “extrajudicial executions” under international human rights law, and why—despite the secret Justice Department memo’s claims—they plainly violate congressional war powers as laid out in the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution. 

• The questionable quality of the intelligence used to target civilians aboard the boats, which relies on squishy terms like “affiliates” and does not require commanders to know who they are killing or even evidence that drugs are aboard the boats. 

• What we know about the victims, which reinforces concerns that the strikes are killing not just drug traffickers but impoverished low-level drug couriers, fishermen, migrants, and other unaffiliated passengers. 

• Options for holding people accountable, once it is possible to do so, for planning, ordering, and executing a patently illegal policy. This raises thorny questions about immunity, pardons, and illegal military orders—but as this report notes, the U.S. criminal and military justice systems are not the only possible venues. 

• Other nations’ responses to the boat strikes: while a few hardline leaders have applauded the boat strikes, many others have been critical or sought to distance themselves from them. Some longtime allies have cut back intelligence-sharing to avoid being implicated in the U.S. killings. 

• The strikes’ failure to deter drug trafficking, as evidenced by their lack of impact on street-level cocaine prices and purity in the United States, and by unchanged seizures at U.S. borders. Cocaine produced in South America is evading the deadly maritime gauntlet.  

“The boat strikes have killed hundreds without due process, harmed U.S. democracy, placed the U.S. military in a terrible bind, and failed even to reduce drug trafficking,” said Isacson. “We hope this report makes clear what a dark chapter in U.S. history they represent and creates momentum for Congress to act.” 

As of the report’s July 24 publication, the boat strikes have been paused for a month, most likely due to U.S. Southern Command’s response to the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela. “The boat strikes should never come back,” said John Walsh, WOLA’s director for drug policy and a co-author of the report. “The entire policy needs to stop now, and the administration should rescind the orders enabling it. And then, at the earliest opportunity, it’s time to hold people accountable for breaking the law.” 

Read the full report here.  

About WOLA: The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is a research and advocacy organization advancing human rights and social justice in the Americas. 

For press inquiries, please email Corie Welch at cwelch@wola.org.