Why United Nations says US boat strikes may be ‘crimes against humanity’

Washington justifies the attacks as necessary to halt the flow of lethal drugs into the US.

This image shows what US President Donald Trump says is US military forces conducting a strike on a boat carrying alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean on September 15, 2025 [Screengrab/Handout/US President Donald Trump's Truth Social account via AFP]

A United Nations report has concluded that US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific are illegal and could constitute “crimes against humanity”.

In a report published on Monday, UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul said attacks on 68 vessels from September last year to August killed at least 223 people and entailed the “illegal use” of disproportionate force.

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The findings were released just days after the US military announced its latest attack on another boat, which killed four people. US President Donald Trump’s administration, which frames the operations against the boats as part of a military conflict, said they are necessary to prevent the flow of lethal drugs into the United States. It has described the drug shipments as an “armed attack” on US territory.

Here’s what we know about why the US has been attacking the boats and whether these strikes are legal:

Venezuelan fishermen are taking precautions in response to US military attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific [File: Federico Parra/AFP]

What does the UN report say?

The report found that the strikes by US forces are unjustified under national and international law and thus amount to “serial extrajudicial killings in violation of the right to life”.

They “plausibly constitute crimes against humanity”, it said.

Even if those attacked were found to be members of organised criminal or “terrorist” groups as the US has claimed, there is no evidence that they had launched an armed attack on the US or were being used as proxies by other countries, which would warrant a US military attack, the report noted.

Saul, the UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, added that drug trafficking “is not equivalent to a military attack”.

Furthermore, observers have noted , the Trump administration has never provided any evidence that any of the boats it has struck were trafficking drugs.

The UN report also cast doubt over the legality of the US abduction of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, during which 75 people were killed, as well as collaborations with other Latin American countries under the Trump administration-initiated “Shield of the Americas”. The initiative seeks to extend US antidrug operations to land across the region.

The UN report called for internal investigations and for commanders involved in the operations to be held accountable.

It concluded that the strikes have failed to prevent the arrival of cocaine in the US on container ships. which are not adequately checked.

Why has the US launched strikes on boats?

Washington first began striking boats it claimed were trafficking drugs from Venezuela to the US across the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean in September last year.

The US military has routinely released videos on social media showing the moments the vessels are hit but has disclosed little about those killed and has not provided evidence tying them to drug trafficking.

Furthermore, experts said most drugs come into the US via Mexico by land through its southern border and do not originate in Venezuela. Families of those killed have often said they were fishermen and not drug smugglers.

The UN report listed 223 casualties from 68 strikes carried out through August.

Two additional attacks this month have raised the number of those killed to 234 in 70 strikes.

In the first set of attacks on September 2, 2025, the US military allegedly used a “ double tap ” tactic, launching a second attack to finish off the survivors of an initial strike. The first attacks killed 11 people.

The move drew intense criticism from the US Congress, which called for the Pentagon to release full videos of the strikes.

There were also allegations that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the order to “kill them all” in the double-tap strike. However, senior military commanders later testified in Congress that he did not.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Michael Vigil, former chief of international operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said: “That is murder. No matter how you spell it out, it’s murder, … and it shocks the moral conscience.”

How does the US justify the strikes?

The most recent attack on Saturday killed four people, according to the US military. It alleged that the boat was travelling “along established narco-trafficking routes” and “confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking”.

Trump has claimed the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has repeatedly justified the boat attacks as necessary to halt the flow of drugs into the country.

Senior officials have also claimed the US is abiding by due process. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Senate hearing in July that “every strike has a legal officer on the deck that has to make a determination about whether the call is legal or not”.

Rights organisations, however, have challenged the killings. In January, the families of two Trinidadian men – Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41 – brought the first case against the US government over the boat attacks to a federal court in Massachusetts. The suit, aided by US legal groups, argued the victims were fishermen.

Separately in December, the family of Colombian Alejandro Carranza Medina filed a human rights complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the Organization of American States.

Can any action be taken against US officials?

The term “crimes against humanity” implies that killings have been carried out systematically in accordance with a plan by a state or an organised group and are an especially serious crime.

Perpetrators accused of such crimes can be tried and convicted only before the International Criminal Court (ICC), which examines whether those carrying out attacks were aware that their actions targeted a civilian population and whether their actions resulted in the killing of multiple people.

US courts cannot try such cases because no specific federal laws criminalise crimes against humanity.

The US is not a member of the ICC, and no American has been tried before the court in The Hague.

The Trump administration has been hostile to the ICC because of arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The US has complained the court is targeting officials from non-ICC countries.

Washington has sanctioned more than a dozen ICC judges and prosecutors since February last year and is reportedly preparing more sanctions against the court itself.

华盛顿方面辩称，这些袭击是阻止致命毒品流入美国的必要之举。

这张图片显示的是美国总统唐纳德·特朗普所说的美军于2025年9月15日在加勒比海对一艘载有涉嫌贩毒者的船只进行打击的画面。[截图/提供/美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的Truth Social账户，图片来自法新社]

联合国的一份报告得出结论，美国对加勒比海和东太平洋涉嫌贩毒船只的袭击是非法的，可能构成“危害人类罪”。

联合国特别报告员本·索尔周一发表的一份报告称，从去年9月到今年8月，68艘船只遭到袭击，造成至少223人死亡，并涉及“非法使用”不成比例的武力。

联合国称，美国对涉嫌贩毒船只的四次袭击中，第一次可能构成“反人类罪”。

列表 2/4 “戴上手铐，蒙住眼睛”：美国是否以厄瓜多尔渔民为目标？

列表 3/4：厄瓜多尔为美国击沉船只的行为辩护，称其为联合缉毒行动

美国宣布向厄瓜多尔提供4500万美元安全援助和增派海军舰艇（共4项，此为第4项）

就在美国军方宣布对另一艘船只发动最新袭击、造成四人死亡的几天后，调查结果公布了。美国总统特朗普的政府将针对这些船只的行动定性为军事冲突的一部分，并声称这些行动对于阻止致命毒品流入美国是必要的。美国政府还将毒品运输描述为对美国领土的“武装袭击”。

以下是我们目前了解到的美国袭击这些船只的原因以及这些袭击是否合法：

委内瑞拉渔民正采取预防措施，以应对美国军方在加勒比海和东太平洋对渔船的袭击。[图片：Federico Parra/法新社]

联合国报告说了什么？

报告发现，美军的袭击在国家和国际法下都是不合理的，因此构成“一系列法外处决，侵犯了生命权”。

报告称，这些行为“很可能构成危害人类罪”。

报告指出，即使像美国所声称的那样，被袭击者被发现是组织犯罪集团或“恐怖组织”的成员，也没有证据表明他们曾对美国发动武装袭击，或者被其他国家用作代理人，因此美国没有理由对他们进行军事打击。

联合国反恐与人权问题特别报告员索尔补充说，贩毒“不等同于军事袭击”。

此外，观察人士指出，特朗普政府从未提供任何证据证明其击沉的任何船只都在贩运毒品。

联合国报告还对美国今年1月绑架委内瑞拉前总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗的合法性提出质疑，该事件造成75人死亡。报告还质疑了特朗普政府发起的“美洲之盾”行动下，美国与其他拉美国家的合作。该行动旨在将美国的禁毒行动扩展到整个拉美国家的陆地上。

联合国报告呼吁进行内部调查，并追究参与行动的指挥官的责任。

报告总结认为，罢工未能阻止可卡因通过集装箱船抵达美国，而这些集装箱船并未得到充分检查。

美国为何对船只发动袭击？

去年9月，华盛顿开始打击其声称从委内瑞拉经东太平洋和加勒比海向美国贩运毒品的船只。

美国军方经常在社交媒体上发布视频，展示船只被击中的瞬间，但很少透露死者的信息，也没有提供证据将他们与毒品走私联系起来。

此外，专家表示，大多数毒品经由墨西哥南部边境陆路进入美国，并非源自委内瑞拉。遇难者家属也经常表示，他们的亲人是渔民，而非毒品走私犯。

联合国报告列出了截至8月份进行的68次空袭造成的223人伤亡。

本月新增的两起袭击事件使死亡人数上升至70起袭击事件中的234人。

在2025年9月2日的第一轮袭击中，美军据称使用了“双重打击”战术，发动第二次袭击以消灭第一次袭击中的幸存者。第一次袭击造成11人死亡。

此举招致美国国会的强烈批评，国会要求五角大楼公布空袭的完整视频。

还有人指控国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯下令在“双重打击”行动中“杀光他们”。然而，高级军事指挥官后来在国会作证时否认了这一指控。

美国缉毒局前国际行动主管迈克尔·维吉尔在接受半岛电视台采访时表示：“这就是谋杀。无论你怎么表述，这就是谋杀……这令人震惊，违背了道德良知。”

美国如何为这些袭击行动辩护？

据美国军方称，最近一次发生在周六的袭击造成四人死亡。军方声称，这艘船“沿着既定的毒品走私路线行驶”，并且“已证实的情报显示该船积极参与毒品走私活动”。

特朗普声称美国正与贩毒集团进行“武装冲突”，并一再辩称，袭击船只是阻止毒品流入美国的必要手段。

高级官员还声称，美国遵守了正当程序。美国国务卿马可·卢比奥在7月份的参议院听证会上表示，“每次打击行动都有一名法律官员在场，负责判定此次行动是否合法”。

然而，人权组织对这些杀戮事件提出了质疑。今年1月，两名特立尼达男子——26岁的查德·约瑟夫和41岁的里希·萨马鲁——的家属向马萨诸塞州联邦法院提起诉讼，这是美国政府首次就船只袭击事件提起诉讼。在美国法律团体的支持下，该诉讼辩称受害者是渔民。

12 月，哥伦比亚人亚历杭德罗·卡兰萨·梅迪纳的家人向美洲人权委员会（美洲国家组织的一部分）提出了人权申诉。

可以对美国官员采取任何行动吗？

“危害人类罪”一词意味着杀戮是由国家或有组织的团体按照计划有系统地实施的，属于特别严重的罪行。

被控犯有此类罪行的肇事者只能在国际刑事法院（ICC）接受审判和定罪，该法院会审查实施袭击的人是否知道他们的行为针对的是平民，以及他们的行为是否导致多人死亡。

美国法院无法审理此类案件，因为没有具体的联邦法律将危害人类罪定为刑事犯罪。

美国不是国际刑事法院的成员国，也没有美国人在海牙国际刑事法院受审。

由于国际刑事法院对以色列总理内塔尼亚胡发出逮捕令，指控其在加沙犯有战争罪和反人类罪，特朗普政府一直对国际刑事法院抱有敌意。美国抱怨该法院针对的是非国际刑事法院管辖国家的官员。

自去年2月以来，华盛顿已经制裁了十几名国际刑事法院法官和检察官，据报道，华盛顿正在准备对国际刑事法院本身实施更多制裁。