A year into a US campaign of strikes on boats said to be linked to drug trafficking, families of the dead are still searching for answers, questioning who exactly has been targeted and on what basis. The campaign has drawn criticism from human rights advocates.
US officials have described those killed as narcotics traffickers, framing the operations as part of a broader effort to disrupt smuggling networks. Relatives and rights groups, however, fear that fishermen and other civilians may be among the victims.
Operations conducted at sea and far from independent scrutiny are difficult to verify, leaving competing accounts of what has happened. That opacity has fuelled demands for transparency and for evidence to support the official version of events.
The dispute raises broader questions about the use of lethal force outside traditional battlefields and the accountability that should accompany it. For grieving families, the priority is simpler: to learn the truth about how their relatives died.
