They cite at least 95 deaths in Caribbean and Pacific operations authorized by the Trump administration.
On Dec. 17, Sen. Dick Durbin and nine other Democratic senators asked the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on 25 military strikes on boats authorized by the administration of President Donald Trump in the waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific.
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Initially justified under the pretext of combating international drug trafficking, those actions have left at least 95 confirmed deaths in what could constitute extrajudicial killings, murder, and war crimes.
The letter was also signed by U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Cory Booker, Alex Padilla, Peter Welch and Adam Schiff.
🚨BREAKING: Under Pete Hegseth’s orders, the U.S Military just bombed and sank a boat – this time in the Eastern Pacific,
– killing its four occupants.They claim the boat contained narcotics and have offered zero proof.
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) December 5, 2025
The following is the letter addressed to Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee:
“Since September, the Trump Administration has summarily executed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on alleged drug smugglers in vessels at sea. This is not a time to mince words. These strikes are extrajudicial killings and shocking violations of fundamental principles of due process and the right to life under U.S. and international law.
The Administration’s claims that the people it is killing are guilty of crimes, affiliated with a criminal or terrorist organization, or ‘combatants’ in a nonexistent armed conflict, do not render these extrajudicial killings any less unlawful.
This Committee must address the serious concerns that these strikes may violate U.S. criminal laws, and that Department of Justice attorneys who gave President Trump and Secretary Hegseth legal cover to summarily execute suspected criminals have violated their ethical obligations.
We respectfully request that you immediately convene a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to ensure that those who authorized these extrajudicial killings are held to account. There is not, nor can there be, any justification for state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings.
Summary executions have no place in a constitutional democracy operating under the rule of law, no matter how heinous the accusations a government makes against someone. Nor can governments fabricate an armed conflict or falsely label people ‘combatants’ to kill them.
This is why U.S. officials and Members of Congress from both parties have long condemned extrajudicial killings, including of alleged drug traffickers, when committed by other nations.
For instance, Secretary of State and then-Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bipartisan resolution in the Senate in 2020 condemning the state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals as part of the Duterte government’s ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines. Just last year, then-Senator Rubio introduced a resolution condemning the Maduro regime in Venezuela for the use of extrajudicial killings.
Former President Duterte is now facing crimes against humanity charges for his spree of extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers. For decades, under both Republican and Democratic Presidents, the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights have condemned extrajudicial killings by foreign governments as significant abuses of internationally recognized human rights.
Drug trafficking is a terrible crime. And it must be addressed with robust, effective, and lawful measures, including interdicting vessels transporting such drugs, prosecuting violators to the full extent of the law, and supporting the needs of impacted families and communities. Instead of intensifying such efforts, President Trump has weakened them.
Just recently, President Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former President of Honduras who was convicted of helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States as part of what U.S. authorities have characterized as ‘one of the largest and most violent-drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.’ This follows the President’s pardon of another drug kingpin, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who created the largest online black market for illegal drugs in our nation’s history.
At the same time, this Administration has diverted thousands of Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law-enforcement agents from their critical drug enforcement missions to carry out the President’s radical anti-immigrant agenda.
This Administration has also shuttered the critical Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, unilaterally terminated hundreds of grants that provide critical funding to state and local law enforcement, and is slashing the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program by more than a third, from about US$298 million to US$196 million.
Not surprisingly, federal drug prosecutions under this Administration have dropped to the lowest level in decades. The American people want real solutions to crime and the drug epidemic—not extrajudicial killings committed in their name. In accordance with the Committee’s oversight responsibilities, we urge you to schedule an immediate hearing on this outrage.”
What norms is the United States violating in the Caribbean? pic.twitter.com/3Zk9LQ3KsY
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 18, 2025
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Source: Durbin Senate
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