US to repatriate survivors of drug boat strike to Colombia, Ecuador
The United States plans to repatriate two alleged drug traffickers to Colombia and Ecuador after military forces attacked their vessel in the Caribbean on Thursday, President Donald Trump said.
Facing questions about the legality of the strikes, the Trump administration has sought to justify the killings by claiming the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels that are linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s effort to dispatch drugs and criminals to the U.S.
The alleged drug runners were expected to repatriated this weekend, people familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and ongoing operations. They did not have serious injuries from the strike, said three of the people familiar with the matter.
Trump said two other alleged traffickers were killed in the strike, and the two survivors would be returned to their home countries “for detention and prosecution.”
U.S. intelligence showed the boat was carrying fentanyl and other drugs, Trump said, without providing evidence and suggesting tens of thousands of American lives were saved by the interdiction.
It is yet unclear if the multinational crew of alleged drug traffickers has ties to Venezuelan criminals or terrorism groups. But the release of two detained suspects further undermines the administration’s justifications and suggests the crew was released to avoid extended legal scrutiny, experts said.
Colombian and Ecuadorian drug runners are focused on cocaine, experts say, while the vast majority of fentanyl bound for the U.S. is trafficked through Mexico.
The Colombian Embassy in Washington declined to comment. The Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington, the State Department and the Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
Authorities in Colombia are expected to welcome the repatriated Colombian individual on Saturday, said a person familiar with the matter. The survivor is expected to be greeted by minister-level government officials unless he is found to have a criminal record, the person said.
In previous armed conflicts, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, when U.S. troops came in contact with enemy fighters and there were survivors, those fighters were taken prisoner. In drug interdictions that occurred before Trump began ordering armed strikes on boats, drug runners were detained by U.S. law enforcement and charged.
There is no congressional authorization for armed conflict in the region, and the legal basis to detain suspects is murky. Off-loading the detainees and avoiding military or federal proceedings may have been the least bad option for the administration, said Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser for counterterrorism and military force operations.
If these cases ended up in court, it may have required the administration to disclose sensitive intelligence and a possible lack of clarity around the boat’s cargo and occupants, said Finucane, now the senior adviser for U.S. programs at the International Crisis Group.
“I expect that smart lawyers in the administration may have finally pointed this out and convinced the administration not to pursue that option,” he said.
Since the strikes began in September, U.S. forces have killed at least 27 people, according to the administration — though officials have not provided evidence of drugs on board the vessels nor the identities of the victims. This was the first time there were survivors.
People familiar with Thursday’s strike said the suspects were targeted while in a semi-submersible, a vessel that moves through the water partially submerged but cannot fully dive like a submarine.
These homemade “narco subs,” as they are sometimes called, have operated in the region for years but are rarely used, suggesting drug traffickers may be shifting to slower but more covert means in an attempt to evade increasing U.S. surveillance efforts.
The boat strikes have coincided with a military buildup in the Caribbean, including U.S. warships, Special Operations personnel and fighter jets. The administration has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Maduro, whom Trump has accused of sending drugs and violent criminals into the U.S. Washington doubled the bounty to up to $50 million for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Maduro on violating U.S. drug laws.
The buildup of U.S. forces has fueled speculation that Trump is ultimately focused on removing Maduro from power, but the disclosure that it has targeted alleged traffickers from other countries could further spur debate on Capitol Hill and among human rights groups of whether the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
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• John Hudson contributed.