{"id":47741,"date":"2026-04-16T18:32:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47741"},"modified":"2026-04-16T18:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:32:54","slug":"state-department-pushes-human-rights-watchdog-to-ignore-deadly-illegal-boat-strike-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/state-department-pushes-human-rights-watchdog-to-ignore-deadly-illegal-boat-strike-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"State Department pushes human rights watchdog to ignore deadly, illegal boat strike campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Posted in Politics and Movements: US<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was advised not to investigate the bombings, Pentagon officials expressed support for strikes on land, ostensibly against drug traffickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by\u00a0Julia Conley<\/a><\/strong> April 14, 2026 (therealnews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Deputy State Department Spokesman Tommy Pigott speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on July 31, 2025. Photo by OLIVER CONTRERAS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Common<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on <\/em>April 14, 2026<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former president of a top international human rights<\/a> watchdog views the United States<\/a>\u2019 monthslong campaign of bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as a clear-cut case of \u201cmurder,\u201d he told<\/a> The Intercept Monday, but he warned that pressure from the Trump administration<\/a> may stop the body from investigating the Pentagon\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan M\u00e9ndez, a former president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, noted that a month after the IACHR held a hearing<\/a> on the boat bombing campaign, officials \u201cmay well feel that this is a very delicate situation, and if they take the initiative, they\u2019re going to incur the wrath of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing last month was the first of its kind and included testimonies from the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, International Crisis Group, and Ben Saul, the United Nations<\/a> special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. The groups presented evidence that the US has been violating both domestic and international law<\/a> by bombing vessels that it has claimed\u2014without making any evidence publicly available\u2014are involved in drug trafficking. Nearly 170 people have been killed in dozens of strikes, and legal experts worldwide have asserted<\/a> the US is violating international law and has committed extrajudicial killings\u2014potentially making those involved in the strikes liable for murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing was followed by a statement from Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, who said<\/a> the IACHR had \u201cstrayed far outside its mandate\u201d by looking into the boat attacks\u2014as the family of one man killed in a bombing requested it to\u2014and accused the ACLU of trying to manipulate the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe United States calls on the commission to adhere to its statute and rules of procedure in the future and avoid inserting itself into matters that are in active domestic litigation and fall outside the human rights sphere,\u201d said Pigott. \u201cConvening hearings under these circumstances risks undermining\u2014not strengthening\u2014the credibility of the inter-American human rights system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pigott also called on the commission to \u201credirect its focus toward the individual petitions languishing on its docket, sometimes for decades.\u201d He did not mention specific petitions or issues the IACHR should focus on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl Anderson, a legal adviser at the State Department, also rebuked the commission for holding the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf the United States cuts the funding, they probably would have to shut down\u2014at least for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A person with close ties to the IACHR told The Intercept that Pigott\u2019s demand that the commission focus on other topics pointed to a pressure campaign aimed at stoking fear that the IACHR could lose its funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President Donald Trump\u2019s zeroed out US contributions to the commission during his first term in 2018, and withdrew some funding the following year due to its support for abortion<\/a> rights. The administration terminated funding last year for at least 22 programs under the IACHR\u2019s parent body, the Organization of American States, of which the US is the largest international funder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are stretched for funding,\u201d M\u00e9ndez told The Intercept. \u201cAnd if the United States cuts the funding, they probably would have to shut down\u2014at least for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuardo Ral\u00f3n, the IACHR\u2019s current president, denied that there is \u201cpressure from the United States on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,\u201d but suggested it may not conduct a comprehensive investigation into the Trump administration\u2019s boat bombings\u2014saying the body \u201cdoes not conduct investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intercept noted that the IACHR has conducted numerous investigations that it has publicly acknowledged and described as such, including into US immigration<\/a> detention centers and the kidnapping and apparent killing of 43 students in Mexico in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ral\u00f3n told the outlet that it has not yet taken any steps to launch an investigation into the strikes following the hearing, and said it \u201cwill continue to monitor the situation in accordance with its mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU\u2019s human rights program, emphasized that \u201cthe commission is within its competency and its bounds to fully investigate the egregious violations of international law happening in its own backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have asked the commission to fulfill its responsibilities as the premier regional human rights body to conduct a fact-finding investigation of these heinous killings,\u201d Dakwar told The Intercept, \u201cand to ensure that no country can act in this fashion because that will have severe implications on human rights in the region and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the State Department has pushed the IACHR away from probing the legality of the boat bombings, administration officials like Joseph Humire, acting assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs, have warned that the attacks at sea are \u201cjust the beginning\u201d of what officials claim is an effort to defeat drug cartels\u2014against which Congress has not authorized any military action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Southern Command announced<\/a> a joint ground operation with Ecuador<\/a> last month to defeat \u201cnarco-terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humire said the Pentagon<\/a> supports \u201cjoint land strikes,\u201d while Gen. Francis Donovan, the head of US Southern Command who has been directing the boat attacks, told the Senate Armed Service Committee that the Pentagon is moving toward \u201ca counter-cartel campaign process that puts total systemic friction across this network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe,\u201d he said, \u201cthese kinetic [boat] strikes are just one small part of that.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.More by Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted in Politics and Movements: US As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was advised not to investigate the bombings, Pentagon officials expressed support for strikes on land, ostensibly against drug traffickers. by\u00a0Julia Conley April 14, 2026 (therealnews.com) US Deputy State Department Spokesman Tommy Pigott speaks during a press briefing… 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":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47742,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47741\/revisions\/47742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}