--- title: U.S. Military Kills 14 In Strikes Against Alleged Cartel Boats in Deadliest Day of Campaign description: At least 57 people have been killed since the start of the campaign. The Pentagon did not provide evidence the targets were cartel members. canonical: https://time.com/7328921/cartel-boats-pete-hegseth-pacific/ author: Richard Hall article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-28T14:42:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:42.150Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Military Kills 14 In Strikes Against Alleged Cartel Boats in Deadliest Day of Campaign og:description: At least 57 people have been killed in the campaign. No evidence was provided to show the targets were cartel members. og:url: https://time.com/7328921/cartel-boats-pete-hegseth-pacific/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15dc8d581b0aeda9/6998cb1625f3ee1f1b645221/screenshot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: screenshot og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Military Kills 14 In Strikes Against Alleged Cartel Boats in Deadliest Day of Campaign twitter:description: At least 57 people have been killed in the campaign. No evidence was provided to show the targets were cartel members. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15dc8d581b0aeda9/6998cb1625f3ee1f1b645221/screenshot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Military Kills 14 in Strikes Against Alleged Cartel Boats in Deadliest Day of Campaign > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=e2119e38-46bb-46f5-955b-e844cac61799&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: War Secretary Hegseth Cites 'Fog of War' In Defense of Venezuelan Boat Strike VERTICAL [Watch (HLS stream): War Secretary Hegseth Cites 'Fog of War' In Defense of Venezuelan Boat Strike VERTICAL](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gQP5xinY.m3u8) (1:10)  _Published 2025-12-03. At least 57 people have been killed since the start of the campaign. The Pentagon did not provide evidence the targets were cartel members._ by [Richard Hall](https://time.com/author/richard-hall/) and [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/) Oct 28, 2025 2:42 PM UTC  A screenshot from a video posted to X by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showing a strike against an alleged cartel boat in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. A screenshot from a video posted to X by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showing a strike against an alleged cartel boat in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. Pete Hegseth / X by [Richard Hall](https://time.com/author/richard-hall/) and [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/) Oct 28, 2025 2:42 PM UTC The U.S. military killed 14 people in strikes against four boats it [claimed were transporting drugs](https://time.com/7326921/trump-venezuela-caribbean-drug-boats-maduro/) in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday. The strikes marked the deadliest day of President Donald Trump’s campaign against boats that his administration claims are manned by drug trafficking cartels, and marked a further escalation in an operation that has begun to draw [scrutiny from his own party](https://time.com/7328672/trump-cartel-bombing-venezuela-republicans/). Hegseth said the four boats “were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.” He added that one person survived the strikes and Mexico had assumed responsibility for their rescue. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she did "not agree with these attacks" and asked officials to meet with the U.S. Ambassador to discuss them. "We want all international treaties to be respected," she said. **Read more:**[_Republicans Are Starting To Speak Out Against Trump’s Boat Bombing Campaign_](https://time.com/7328672/trump-cartel-bombing-venezuela-republicans/) Hegseth shared footage of the strikes on social media that showed several boats catching fire. The strikes bring the number of people killed since the start of the campaign to 57\. As in previous operations, the administration has not provided evidence to show that the targets were cartel members. The family members of at least one victim of a previous strike claimed he was a fisherman and [denied any links to cartels](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colombian-killed-us-strike-fisherman-wife-says/). Legal experts have questioned the legality of Trump’s bombing of suspected civilian cartel members without any attempt to intercept or capture the offenders, and without approval from Congress. The campaign has even drawn criticism from advocates of the War on Terror, a similarly sprawling and ill-defined military campaign that stretched the limits of executive power. “We have the president using force against civilians—they may be breaking narcotics laws, they may be criminals—but he has simply killed them without due process, people who were not posing a threat against the United States,” John Bellinger, a former legal advisor for the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council during the George W. Bush Administration, [told TIME in a recent interview](https://time.com/7326921/trump-venezuela-caribbean-drug-boats-maduro/). “Either Trump does not know about international law, or he does not care,” he added. The latest operation comes as a growing number of Trump’s own party are publicly challenging the bombing campaign, which has now expanded into a broader pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump Administration considers illegitimate. Trump has [denied that he is seeking regime change](https://time.com/7315126/trump-maduro-venezuela-regime-change/) in Venezuela, but in recent weeks, he has increased threats against the country’s president and ordered a massive naval buildup off Venezuela’s coast. Trump has also authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and says he was weighing carrying out land strikes on the country. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, called for greater scrutiny of the strikes in an interview with the [New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/politics/republicans-trump-drug-war.html) on Wednesday. “We have oversight responsibilities, and we expect to get our questions answered,” he said. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, also urged talks on authorizing the use of force. “I think we’ve got to be very careful when you’re talking about ordering a kinetic strike,” he told the _Times._ Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, also told the _Times_ there are legitimate questions about the legality of Trump’s strikes without congressional authority. Collins said she would like to see the Senate “pass a resolution that either authorizes his force or prevents its use,” although the comments come [after Senate Republicans struck down a measure](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/83/text) that would have blocked Trump from continuing his assault on unmarked boats. Read more: [_Trump’s Caribbean Bombing Campaign Brings War on Terror to the Americas_](https://time.com/7326921/trump-venezuela-caribbean-drug-boats-maduro/) Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford told C-SPAN that the White House “needs to give insight” to Congress about the military strikes “If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration, I’d be apoplectic,” Lankford [said Thursday](https://www.c-span.org/program/ceasefire/ceasefire-with-senators-james-lankford-and-chris-coons/667481). Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian Republican from Kentucky, has emerged as a consistent critic of the campaign. Paul has gone so far this weekend as to join international experts in [calling the strikes](https://time.com/7319697/trump-venezuela-narcoterrorism-drug-cartels/), which the Trump Administration says have killed 43 people, “extrajudicial killings.” “No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” he said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it,” he added, emphasizing that the “drug war” is something that has traditionally been done through domestic law enforcement. ## Transcript I watched that first strike live. As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours or whatever where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the which he had the complete authority to do. And by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. So you didn't see any survivors to be clear, after that first strike? I did not personally see survivors, but I stand because the thing was on fire. It was exploded. And fire. Smoke. You can't see anything. You got digital. This is called the fog of war. This is what you and the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill, and you nitpick, and you plant fake stories in the Washington Post about kill everybody phrases on anonymous sources, not based in anything, not based in any truth at all. And then you want to throw out really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made. I wrote a whole book on this topic because of what politicians and the press does to war fighters. 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