{"id":48776,"date":"2026-06-20T12:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T19:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48776"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T19:50:24","slug":"un-experts-demands-nations-break-their-silence-as-trump-hegseth-murder-3-more-people-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/06\/20\/un-experts-demands-nations-break-their-silence-as-trump-hegseth-murder-3-more-people-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Experts Demands Nations \u2018Break Their Silence\u2019 as Trump, Hegseth Murder 3 More People at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Surveillance<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Surveillance footage shows a boat bombed by US Southern Command in the eastern Pacific Ocean on June 18, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: @Southcom\/X)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration has killed at least 211 people by bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jun 19, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As US senators pushed<\/a> the Department of Defense to release unedited footage of the boat bombings the Trump administration<\/a> has carried out in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September, US Southern Command on Thursday announced<\/a> that it had killed three more people in the operation that some international law<\/a> experts have said<\/a> amounts to mass murder and an extrajudicial killing spree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with the other announcements of boat bombings, at least 65<\/a> of which the US has now carried out, Southern Command released no evidence Thursday night of its claim that the vessel it bombed was \u201coperated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,\u201d \u201cengaged in narco-trafficking operations,\u201d or that the three people killed were \u201cnarco-terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Now More Than 200 Trump Summary Executions\u2019 as US Bombs Another Boat<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Eastern<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018These Extrajudicial Killings Are Becoming Normalized,\u2019 Amnesty Warns After More Boat Bombings<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Victims of the previous boat bombings have included<\/a> fishermen and other people who had no involvement with drug trafficking, according<\/a> to legal complaints filed by families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Saul, the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0special rapporteur on\u00a0human rights<\/a>\u00a0and counterterrorism, called on international governments to \u201cbreak their silence and jointly condemn these murders,\u201d noting that the death toll of the administration\u2019s operation is now at least 211 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/profbensaul\/status\/2067772097016029615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2067772097016029615%7Ctwgr%5E4d339c9b5873f12757dd2beb2e24bd511ef9ddc9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fboat-bombing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some international officials, including French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot<\/a> and Colombian President Gustavo Petro<\/a>, have strongly denounced the boat bombings and accused Trump of breaking international law. Some countries have ended or dialed back intelligence sharing with the US. But human rights groups have called<\/a> on the international community to take a unified stance against the boat strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cSick of hearing, \u2018I didn\u2019t know those boat strikes are still happening. Silence leaves the impression that this is somehow OK,\u201d said<\/a> Adam Isacson of the Washington<\/a> Office on Latin America<\/a> on Thursday, adding that the US Coast Guard had called off<\/a> its search for two survivors of an earlier boat bombing this week, potentially bringing the total death toll to 213.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> has claimed the US is engaged in an \u201carmed conflict\u201d with cartels in Latin America and has said the boat bombing campaign is aimed at stopping illegal drugs like fentanyl from flowing into the US. According<\/a> to the US State Department\u2019s 2025 report on international narcotics control, Mexico is the \u201conly significant source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues significantly affecting the United States<\/a>,\u201d with the drug mainly entering the US via the southern border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an analysis<\/a> of Customs and Border Protection data in April, Isacson emphasized that the lethal boat strikes have not stopped drugs from entering the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the administration were targeting drug traffickers as it claims, bombing vessels involved in the drug trade<\/a> is a violation of international laws protecting civilians from military force. Since the US is not officially engaged<\/a> in an armed conflict with drug cartels, the accused \u201cnarco-terrorists\u201d the Trump administration has killed have all been civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal experts also say<\/a> that US Southern Command\u2019s killing of survivors of initial strikes by bombing them again, would also be war crimes<\/a> in an armed conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, after another boat bombing that killed at least one person, Saul called<\/a> for \u201cthose who ordered and carried out these crimes to be investigated, prosecuted, and punished, in line with international law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 24, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights are\u00a0set to argue<\/a>\u00a0before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for the immediate release of a secret legal memo authored by the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel, which the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed gives the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the authority to kill people at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surveillance footage shows a boat bombed by US Southern Command in the eastern Pacific Ocean on June 18, 2026.  (Photo: @Southcom\/X) The Trump administration has killed at least 211 people by bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September. Julia Conley Jun 19, 2026 (CommonDreams.org) As… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1880],"tags":[2070,1273],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48776"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48777,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48776\/revisions\/48777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}