A recent lethal airstrike carried out by the United States military against a suspected drug-trafficking vessel has pushed the cumulative death toll from Washington’s year-long anti-“narco-terrorist” campaign across Latin America to at least 182, according to official statements and independent counting. The strike, which took place on Friday, left two people dead aboard the targeted boat, US Southern Command — the military body overseeing all American operations in the Latin American and Caribbean region — confirmed in a public post on the social platform X. In its announcement, the command echoed the standardized language it has used to justify dozens of similar lethal operations launched since the campaign launched in September last year, claiming intelligence assessments verified the vessel was traveling along well-documented smuggling corridors in the Eastern Pacific and actively engaged in drug-trafficking activities. According to a tally compiled by Agence France-Presse, this strike marked at least the seventh such lethal operation carried out by US forces in April alone. Despite repeated claims that targeted vessels are linked to drug smuggling networks categorized as terrorist organizations by the US government, the Trump administration has yet to release conclusive, public evidence to back up these assertions. The lack of transparent proof has sparked fierce debate over the legal standing of the cross-border campaign. International legal scholars and global human rights organizations have raised sharp criticism, arguing that most of these strikes qualify as extrajudicial killings. Many of those killed, they contend, were unarmed civilians who did not pose any immediate, active threat to US national security, raising serious questions about the moral and legal legitimacy of the ongoing campaign.