Zombie Mission: The US’ Killing Spree in the Caribbean and Pacific

The US continues to target vessels in southern waters. Why?

Here’s your Tuesday Interruptrr, where you’ll find analysis, deep dives, book reviews, and guest columns. Today it’s a guest column by Kate Brannen, who’s published here before. A few months ago, Kate pointed out to me that the US was continuing strikes on boats in the Caribbean—even after capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Why? That’s the focus of her piece. And it’s a good question—one that should be getting more attention, especially since it is resulting in casualties and doesn’t seem to have an end goal.

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Zombie Mission

A grainy, black and white video of a small boat crossing an empty sea, then a big white explosion against a black backdrop. A grim announcement: “three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action.” And so, the steady drumbeat of killing by the US government continues in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Trump administration officials justified the bombing campaign at the end of last year as part of its effort to oust Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela. Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said. But there have been more than 20 strikes on suspected drug boats since Maduro’s capture in January. Why hasn’t the killing stopped if Maduro is sitting in a Brooklyn jail?

To date, the Trump administration has carried out 66 strikes and killed at least 220 people, and yet we still have next-to-no information about who these people are. Not once has the Department of Defense provided the names of the people it has killed or even indicated their positions inside the groups that it claims are at war with the United States.

The boat strike campaign is now a zombie mission, on auto pilot with no clear strategy or endgame. The reason the killing continues is because the impetus for the operation never had anything to do with military strategy or even counter-narcotics.