The United Nations (UN) has blasted the Trump administration’s military campaign against cartel drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, calling the U.S. strikes “unacceptable” and demanding they stop immediately.
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights and a longtime Austrian bureaucrat within the global body, issued a statement through his office Friday condemning the U.S. operations.
It marks the first such rebuke from the organization since the campaign began in September.
“These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for Türk’s office, during a regular UN briefing, according to the Associated Press.
“The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
Shamdasani said Türk believed that “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”
Trump Defends Escalation Against Cartels
President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended the campaign, calling it a necessary escalation to combat the massive influx of drugs flowing from South America into the United States.
Under Trump’s August executive order, the U.S. military was authorized to use force against what the administration formally designated as “Latin American narco-terrorist organizations.”
The order marked a major policy shift by expanding America’s counter-cartel efforts from interdiction and law enforcement to direct military engagement.
Hegseth: ‘We Will Stop at Nothing to Defend Our Homeland’
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the latest strike on Wednesday, announcing that U.S. forces destroyed a drug-laden vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
“We will stop at nothing to defend our homeland and our citizens,” Hegseth said previously.
“We will track them, kill them, and dismantle their networks throughout our hemisphere — at the times and places of our choosing.”
According to Pentagon data, all four people aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, bringing the total to 14 strikes and at least 61 deaths since the campaign began.
Globalists Object, Trump Doubles Down
The UN’s condemnation underscores a widening rift between Washington and international institutions as Trump’s second-term national security policy continues to reject global approval in favor of direct U.S. action.
Trump’s advisers have argued that cartels operating in Latin America are functionally terrorist networks, often armed, financed, and protected by hostile regimes, including those in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Supporters say the campaign has already disrupted multiple trafficking routes and reduced the volume of fentanyl and cocaine shipments reaching the Southern Border, a key Trump campaign promise.
While global critics decry the strikes as violations of “international law,” Trump’s national security team insists they are acts of defense, not aggression.
The White House has not responded directly to Türk’s comments, but sources close to the administration say the president has no intention of backing down.
With the death toll mounting among cartel operators and growing international pushback, Trump’s anti-cartel strategy is shaping up to be one of the most hardline military campaigns against transnational crime in modern U.S. history.
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