The United Nations Friday described as “extrajudicial killings” as it strongly condemned the United States for striking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific allegedly carrying drug traffickers.
“These attacks — and their mounting human cost — are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement, in what is seen as the first condemnation from United Nations organisations over the strikes on the vessels.
Last month, President Donald Trump ramped up US military presence in the Caribbean Sea ordering an amphibious squadron to the southern Caribbean as part of his effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels.
A nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser have also being allocated to US Southern Command as part of the mission.
The United States military has carried out deadly air strikes in Caribbean waters over the past few weeks against what Washington alleges are Caracas-backed drug traffickers. The Venezuelan government denies the charge, accusing the administration of being a threat to the peace and security of the whole region.
Trinidad and Tobago has come out in full support for the US action, with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar already indicating that the drug traffickers should be killed “violently”.
Earlier this week, Venezuela parliament passed a motion declaring her persona non grata and President Nicolas Maduro also announced the immediate” suspension of energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago.
But Trinidad and Tobago Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Sean Sobers PORT of Spain Government is “unbothered” by the situation, insisting that the two countries enjoy good diplomatic relations.
The UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that Turk has called for an investigation into the strikes.
“These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,” she told a UN briefing in Geneva.
Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.
The UN said that countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.
Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life.
The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, ghe UN noted. (CMC)
