<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/15/us-military-airstrikes-caribbean-pacific-victim-identities>
"A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US
attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed
nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.
It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before
attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their
families launched legal cases against the White House.
The Trump administration has consistently sought to justify the killings, which
began during last year’s military buildup towards Venezuela, by arguing those
targeted were “narco-terrorists” transporting drugs to the US.
But a joint effort by 20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for
Investigative Journalism (CLIP) this week published the identities of 13 of
those killed, some of whom showed no indication of involvement in drug
trafficking.
The CLIP’s report showed that all the victims identified so far, including
those who may have had some involvement in drug trafficking, came from
extremely poor communities across Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Despite the US claim that the strikes are fighting narco-terrorism, what is
actually happening is that young people living in extremely precarious
conditions, doing whatever work they can to support their families, are being
targeted,” said María Teresa Ronderos, director and co-founder of the CLIP.
“The US is not taking down any Pablo Escobar or Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán,” she
added.
The investigation also underlined what other reports and security analysts have
concluded: that the strikes have not reduced the flow of drugs to the US, but
have instead torn apart communities already fractured and weakened by organised
crime and state neglect.
“There are communities where they stopped fishing for several weeks – and if
they do that, people go hungry – because they were terrified of being bombed,”
said Ronderos.
The main finding, she said, was putting names and faces to a greater number of
victims, “to show that these were flesh-and-blood people” – even if the vast
majority remain unidentified."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
