Washington– The US Coast Guard said on Friday that it was still searching for people in the eastern Pacific Ocean He jumped off alleged drug smuggling boats When the US military attacked the ships days earlier, making it less likely that anyone would survive.
Search efforts began Tuesday afternoon after the military informed the Coast Guard that survivors were in waters about 400 miles (650 kilometers) southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border, the Naval Service said in a statement.
The Coast Guard sent a plane from Sacramento to search an area covering more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), issuing an urgent warning to nearby ships. The agency said it coordinated more than 65 hours of search efforts, working with other countries as well as civilian ships and boats in the area.
The weather during that period included 9-foot seas and 40-knot winds. The United States did not say how many people jumped into the water, and if they are not found, how high the death toll might be compared to the months-long Trump administration. Small boat bombing campaign On charges of transporting drugs in the area.
The US military said earlier this week that it attacked three boats traveling along known drug smuggling routes, and that they “transferred drugs between the three ships before the strikes.” The army did not provide evidence to support this claim.
The US Southern Command, which oversees the area, said that three people were killed when the first boat was hit, while people in the other two boats jumped overboard and moved away from the two ships before attacking them.
The strikes occurred in a part of the eastern Pacific Ocean where there are no Navy ships. Southern Command said it immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate search and rescue efforts for the people who jumped from the ship before other boats were hit.
Calling up the Coast Guard is notable because the military is under intense scrutiny after U.S. forces Survivors of the first attack were killed in early September With a follow-up strike for their disabled boat. Some Democratic lawmakers and Legal experts said The military committed a crime, while the Trump administration and some Republican lawmakers say the subsequent strike was lawful.
There were other survivors of the boat strikes, including one from the Mexican Navy Search suspended In late October, four days later. Two other survivors of the raid On a submersible ship in the Caribbean Sea that same month they were sent to their home countries – Ecuador and Colombia. Authorities in Ecuador later The man was releasedSaying they have no evidence he committed a crime in the South American country.
At the direction of President Donald Trump, the US military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35 and the death toll was at least 115, according to figures released by the Trump administration.
Trump did Justify the boat strikes As a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, he stressed that the United States is involved in this “Armed conflict” with drug gangs.
Along with the strikes, the Trump administration has built up military forces in the region as part of an escalating pressure campaign on the Venezuelan president. Nicolas Madurowho was charged with drug-related terrorism in the United States.