It Could Happen Here - US Military Boat Strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific

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Starting point is 00:03:46 Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. AllZone Media. Hi, you're listening to It Could Happen here. My name's Carlos Berrios Polanco. I'm a journalist and writer, and I'll be your host for today's episode, which is about the ongoing campaign of boat strikes by the U.S. military that have turned the oceans around the Americas into killing fields. To give a high-level overview of what I'll be talking about today, since September 2, 2025, up until the time of recording, the U.S. military has carried out at least 70 strikes on civilian vessels in the Caribbean basin and the eastern Pacific. Ocean. At least 234 people have been killed by these strikes, according to reporting from the New York Times. Per air wars, there have been survivors almost every month of the campaign, but only free out of the 28 total have ever been rescued. These strikes originally started in the Caribbean

Starting point is 00:04:54 following the mobilization of military assets into the region, which includes the reactivation of the once dormant Roosevelt Road's military base in Puerto Rico, where I live and am currently recording from. I'm sure that I've seen some of the aircraft used in these strikes and other military operations in the region from the hill that overlooks the base's airstrip. And I've probably watched every single one of the videos that Trump administration or the U.S. military has posted announcing that these strikes took place. You've likely at least seen one yourself. It's almost always a social media post sometimes a press release,

Starting point is 00:05:33 typically showing a black and white video of a go-fast vessel, colloquially known as a panga or a yola, depending on where you're located. They're typically sipping across the waves only for a missile to rain down from the sky shortly after the video starts,

Starting point is 00:05:50 turning the boat and all the people aboard it into a giant ball of fire. Her air wars, these posts almost always follow the same formula, naming who ordered the strike, the amount of people killed, calling them drug traffickers or narco-terrorists, saying they're part of a, quote, designated terrorist organization, end quote, in stating the location where the strike took place.

Starting point is 00:06:15 To be honest with you, even if the victims are blurred out and you rarely get an up-close look at how these people are torn to shreds, these are essentially snuff films that the Trump administration has used to hype up itself and its war on so-called narco-terrorism. The Trump administration has been laying the fin legal justification, as well as the moral and philosophical foundation for this quote-unquote war, since essentially their first day in office. More than two months after the first strike, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef officially announced Operation Southern Spear

Starting point is 00:06:50 as the, quote, overarching DOW operation to disrupt the flow of narcotics in the Western Hemisphere. from drug cartels that the president has named as a designated terrorist organization, parentheses, DTOs. Per a DOD Inspector General report, Southern Speer's mission statement as well as several documents that created the legal justification for these strikes and other related operations are classified in secret from the public. However, as this Inspector General report states,

Starting point is 00:07:22 the aim of Southern Spear is to, quote, defend the homeland, protect regional partners and ensure stability and security across the Western Hemisphere. Operation Southern Spear has since evolved into Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, which essentially means that several partner countries in the hemisphere are working under Trump's banner of anti-narco-terrorism, whatever that means. The Trump administration has repeatedly said that the people killed in these strikes are quote-unquote narco-traffickers, and therefore enemy combatants, according to a January 20th, 20, 2025 the groups that the dead allegedly belong to either, quote-unquote, foreign terrorist

Starting point is 00:08:08 organizations, or, quote-unquote, specially designated global terrorists. Two terms that sound like they're the same thing, but essentially delineate groups marked by the State Department and the Treasury Department, respectively, as terrorists. There is substantial doubt as to whether the Trump administration is even able to identify these people before massacring them. However, as has been evidently clear to anyone with eyes, these people are not terrorists, and there are serious doubts as to whether they're even actually connected to drug trafficking organizations in a meaningful way. Because these strikes occur in the open ocean, sometimes in international waters, any evidence that could help in identifying the victims sinks beneath the wall.

Starting point is 00:08:52 waves relatively quickly, making positive identification nearly impossible. A list compiled by Air Wars identifies 26 victims by their full names. A lot of these names come from media outlets hitting the ground and interviewing people in the communities where the men who've been killed by these strikes used to live. Per the list, a lot of these names come from the Los Angeles Times, the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, the Associated Press, and somewhere identified by Costa Rican authorities as reported. recorded by La Nacion, as well as a collaborative investigation project titled Los Bombardiados, Sin Derecho to Defense, or the bombed no right to defense between Air Wars,

Starting point is 00:09:35 El Centro Latino-American of Investigation Periodistica, otherwise known as El Clip, and several other Latin American or Caribbean media outlets. The Air Wars list includes names from the first strike up until strikes in May earlier this year. This doesn't mean that they've stopped working on it, just that they haven't been able to identify anyone by their full name after that. In other cases, these outlets and others across the Western Hemisphere have been able to find nicknames and general descriptions of these men. Air Wars keeps a list of these in their individual trackers per strike as well. I have all these sources linked in the episode description.

Starting point is 00:10:15 I've tried to include English as well as some Spanish language news sources, the list by Air Wars, Los Bombardados investigation and the killing spree report by the Washington Office on Latin America or Wola were huge sources for this piece. So if you're at all interested in learning more about this topic, please go read those. The evidence found by these outlets points to the killed victims being a mix of fishermen, motorcycle or bus drivers, and boat captains. The men are mostly from some of the poorest areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. And when they are connected to drug trafficking, organizations, they appeared to be, quote, among the lowest ranked members, end quote, per air wars. Among the identified, there's a quote-unquote local crime boss, a fisherman pressured to get

Starting point is 00:11:02 on drug trafficking boats because they had no other options to make money to feed their children, an indoor soccer player, people who left home in search of work, and fishermen who appear to have been stalled at sea fixing their ship's motor. The majority of the men hail from Venezuela and Mexico, while a few are from Colombia, Ecuador, Trinidad, and Tobago, and St. Lucia. The Los Bombardiados investigation has been able to geolocate seven of the boat strikes, three in the Pacific and four in the Caribbean. Of the two in the Pacific, two took place broadly near the Mexico border, and one strike occurred about halfway between Mexico and Ecuador.

Starting point is 00:11:43 Of the four in the Caribbean, one took place in the open ocean between Venezuela and the island of La Spaniola. Another appears to have taken place broadly near the Gulf of Venezuela. One took place in the Gulf of Paria between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago. And another took place along the spine of the lesser Antilles, close to Martinique and St. Lucia. Elclips reporting identifies other strikes, including one off the coast of Costa Rica, one off Ecuador's Santa Cruz islands, and another about halfway between Santa Cruz and Ecuador's coastline and one near Mexico's coasts. Although the strikes originally started in the Caribbean, only about a third of these strikes

Starting point is 00:12:22 have taken place here. Meanwhile, the other two thirds have taken place in the Pacific. I'm going to talk more about the identities of these men later on as I talk about the individual strikes. But before I keep going, I want to take this moment to say that it does not and should not matter whether these men were simply fishermen or if they actually were drug traffickers, any level of criminality, whether real or perceived, does not in any sense of the word justify the murder of defenseless people on a boat who had no way of fighting back against the missile coming from the

Starting point is 00:12:59 sky. As many experts on U.S. Maritime International and Humanitarian Law have noted, these strikes on civilians because they absolutely are not combatants and the U.S. is not at war against the groups that they pretend that these people are a part of, are basically murder. As Ben Saul, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while countering Terrorism wrote in a briefing note, the attacks are, quote, in violation of the right to life, being unjustified in national or personal self-defense or under international humanitarian law. The International Law of the Sea, Narcotic Suppression Conventing,

Starting point is 00:13:43 or international counterterrorism law. Later on in that same document, he wrote that there is, quote, reasonable ground to believe, end quote, that the United States strikes, quote, constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law. This record is on. Miley is having a moment. New name exclusive shows. So I-R. Radio is sending you to experience it all. Life at the Hollywood Blights. hotel, tickets, and $1,000 cash.

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Starting point is 00:15:45 On this season of betrayal, we meet Carl Bryant. Carl thought he was living a normal drama-free life until the messages started. You will have hell to pay. For nine months, someone infiltrated every aspect of Carl's life threatening to ruin him. Cyberstalking, swatting, extortion, impersonation. And then the text threats escalated. Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. Yes, department.

Starting point is 00:16:18 is playing out in real life, not just on the phone. Every piece of evidence pointed to one man. But every piece of evidence was a lie. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The new NFL season is here, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl, 61. Last year, we had Mike McDonald, Sam Darnold on the field after the game. But that was last year. If you're a football sicko like me, NFL Daily is your kind of show. It is in the name NFL

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Starting point is 00:17:41 Dear honies, this is goodbye. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patramathers, and her husband Michael, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know that they had died by suicide. By the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Petra and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? I would have given a million reasons to not leave this world had I known. I keep coming back to I truly hope that Petra was a thousand percent on board with the plan. Do you think of him as having killed her?

Starting point is 00:18:25 Yes, I do. I hold Michael responsible from my mother's staff. I'm Leon Nafok. And I'm Alice Gregory. Together we set out to interview everyone who got one of Patriot and Michael's letters, as one married couple trying to understand another. Listen to death of an artist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every case has a story.

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Starting point is 00:19:23 That's exactly why we created NFL Prophs. Got a man wide open. Seahawks! Every week, we use exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content to break down the biggest stories, matchups, and moments from around the league. We go beyond the box score to uncover the numbers, the tendencies, and details that help explain what actually. happened on the field. Fires it out in the flat to Barclay who beats one man, spins past another,

Starting point is 00:19:51 leaps over at third. And don't worry, this isn't just a show for stats experts. We use advanced analytics to help tell the story behind the game, turning the numbers into insights that every fan can understand and enjoy. So whether you're a casual fan learning more about football or a hardcore fan who can't get enough analysis, our goal is to help you see the game in a whole new way. If you've ever wanted to know why a playwork, how a matchup was won, or what most fans missed on Sunday, NFL Pro delivers insights you simply can't get anywhere else. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Before I can talk about any both strikes, I need to explain how, according to the Washington Post, the Trump administration has been pushing for these strikes on drug traffickers, on alleged drug traffickers, I should say, since they took off. and how they repeatedly sidestepped, purged, fired, or steamrolled any lawyers who question their plans.

Starting point is 00:21:01 First, I want to broadly talk about why the U.S. is doing this. The Trump administration essentially believes or purports to believe, at least, that since these alleged drug traffickers, which they have not published any evidence that these people are who they say they are, aka alleged drug traffickers, are poisoning the U.S. with drugs, then it's fair. fair game for the U.S. to kill them. To the U.S. government, this is quote-unquote self-defense. However, as UN Special Rapporteur, Saul highlights in his note, even if, and there's a big if there, if they're actually drug traffickers.

Starting point is 00:21:38 This is in no way comparable to a direct military action. Drug trafficking and military actions could never amount to be the same thing. They are simply incompatible. To quote from Saul's note, drug trafficking is not force at all. The Trump administration also alleges that these non-state actors are being sent by states, namely Venezuela. After putting Tren Darawa on the FTO list, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to declare that Trenadawa was engaged in a quote-unquote invasion of the U.S.

Starting point is 00:22:14 on behalf of the Venezuelan government. It used this as pretext to send 147 Venezuelan men would see. seemingly no connection at all to the gang to El Salvador's Secaught prison in March, where they suffered from torture. Along similar lines, in November 2025, the U.S. listed the Cartel de Los Soles as an FTO. The Trump government had, for a long time, contended that Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan president, was the leader of the Cartel de Los Soles, even though experts, like those of inside inside the Venezuelan armed forces. It was more like a loose network of cells inside the Venezuelan armed forces. Also, going out of timeline here, but the U.S. government dropped the

Starting point is 00:22:56 accusation against Maduro that he led the cartel earlier this year during his court case in New York. Shortly after Trump declared several of these criminal groups FTOs, Hegsef began purging the DOD of any lawyers or commanders who would serve as quote-unquote roadblocks to Trump's orders, according to the Hill. A similar thing was occurring at the Justice Department, per the New York Times. And this is like absolutely the type of thing you do when you're planning to break the law or do something evil.

Starting point is 00:23:28 The top echelon of the Trump admin has done stuff like this across all avenues available to it. Imagine someone breaking a key in a door lock so that no matter how much you want to lock the door, it's impossible unless you change the whole mechanism. This is what they were doing, essentially. Staying on this door analogy, the Trump administration essentially just made it so that the door to doing something wildly illegal and immoral could never be fully closed to them by the people who would actually stop them from opening it. These strikes were originally supposed to be carried out by the CIA, but lawyers at the spy agency questioned whether killing civilian drug traffickers was legal under domestic law.

Starting point is 00:24:11 One person familiar with the debate told the Washington Post that, quote, there is no actual threat justifying self-defense, end quote. This is perhaps the first time the CIA has said it didn't want to get involved in Latin America directly. That's a joke, of course. The CIA is definitely here. Just look at the two agents that died in Mexico earlier this year. The CIA is also providing the targeting assistance and intelligence necessary to conduct these strikes, according to the Guardian. Per WAPO, the Trump admin quickly moved on with an alternative plan to use the U.S. military for these strikes. During the summer of 2025, the Justice Department signed a secret opinion justifying the boat strikes by saying that the U.S. was in armed conflict with, quote, unquote, narco-terrorist, and that using lethal force against them was okay because it protected national interests and because they were a, quote, threat to the U.S.

Starting point is 00:25:10 to a foreign nation attempting to invade. Senator Mark Kelly told WAPO. However, this was in a capital W war, so they didn't need congressional authorization. Instead, it's a, quote, non-international armed conflict, end quote. For a separate WAPO article, the Trump admin's legal justification, quote, does not stand up to the facts, end quote, to lawyers inside and outside the government. While this memo was produced during the summer, it was not signed until September 5th of 2025, after the first boat strike occurred. According to The Guardian, the memo states that these groups are using the proceeds from drug trafficking to wage war,

Starting point is 00:25:53 which is something that the Taliban did, but that experts have said that these cartels designated as FTOs or DTOs are simply not doing. Also, you have to remember that these people, if they're connected to the cartel, are at most low-level members, and their deaths, while extremely gruesome, have little impact on drug trafficking in the region. Perwapo, the strikes have not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the U.S., according to a Drug Enforcement Administration assessment. Also, did I mention that Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras, who'd been sentenced to 45 years in prison in June 2024 after being convicted of importing more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. between 2004 and 2022. I'm again stepping out of timeline here, but I wanted to jump ahead to illustrate how this anti-drug policy is pure farce.

Starting point is 00:26:51 It's fake and violence seems to be the point of these boat strikes for the Trump administration. Sorry to digress. Anyway, in mid-20205, Trump signed a classified directive that offered the military to use force against a secret list of 24 DTOs. Not to be left behind, Higgs have followed this up with an execute order in August 2025 that contained targeting instructions that didn't require positive identification of a target. Instead, quote-unquote, reasonable certainty that a person is a member of or affiliated with a DTO, per the Washington. post. I want to stop right here and say that under Obama, the standard for drone strikes in the Middle East was quote unquote near certainty, and they still struck a marriage possession in Yemen. There is serious reason to doubt the U.S. ability to know the certainty of any target they're

Starting point is 00:27:46 planning to hit. Earlier this year, a joint U.S. and Ecuadorian operation on an alleged narco-terrorist compound actually raided a dairy farm with no arrest, but the Ecuadorian military did allegedly torture some folks, per the New York Times. Meanwhile, according to reporting in Bloomberg, serious issues with the AI-assisted quote-unquote kill chain used by the U.S. military led to the strike that killed at least 120 free children at a girl's school in Manab, Iran. United Nations investigators recently concluded that this was likely a war crime. Funnily enough, the boat strikes do not constitute a war crime

Starting point is 00:28:28 because we're simply not at war with the cartels in a strictly international legal sense. The criteria established by the Execute Order to attack these ships is really unclear. Democratic Senator Tim Cain from Virginia revealed that the both strikes are being carried out using free criteria that he was not allowed to disclose. However, he was allowed to disclose that, quote unquote, evidence of narcotics was not one of them. Republican Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky said during the same hearing that having weapons on the vessel is not one of the criteria either. This was during a full committee hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee for the fiscal year 27 State Department budget, by the way. Anyway, in August 2025, the U.S. military mobilized to the Caribbean. And on September 2nd, 2025, the first strike event occurred.

Starting point is 00:29:23 and I say strike event because there were at least four missiles fired on that day. Per the Washington Post, Defense Secretary Pete Hexef's order was to, quote, kill everybody, end quote. Video published after the attack shows a boat racing across the waves, lighting up with a tower of fire after being hit. Nine people died because of that first missile. However, after the smoke and fire cleared, surveillance video being watched by U.S. military officials,

Starting point is 00:29:52 but not released to the public, showed two people clinging to the remains of the vessel. They stayed in those freezing waters for roughly 45 minutes until Admiral Frank Bradley, then head of the Joint Special Operations Command, also known as J-Soc, ordered SEAL Team 6 to hit it again, killing the two remaining survivors. Per the intercept, Admiral Bradley sought legal counsel from J-Soc's legal advisor in between the first and second strike. Although the response isn't known, a lawmaker told the intercept that the follow-up strike was deemed legal. Two more missiles finally sank the vessel. Bradley, who's now chief of Special Operations Command, said that he ordered the extra strikes

Starting point is 00:30:37 because the shipwrecked men and the fragment of the boat still posed a threat, sources told the intercept. For the New York Times, the survivors had managed to get back on the boat's remains and were waving to the planes before the second missile killed them. The aircraft used to carry out this strike was reportedly painted to look like a civilian plane. However, this practice has stopped since that first strike, according to the New York Times. That same article states that the men had spotted the plane and turned the boat around back to Venezuela. For sources who spoke with the intercept, J-Soc did not know the names or supposed affiliations of all the persons aboard this vessel. Of the victims who've been identified by Air Wars, eight were from San Juan Dunare in Venezuela, while three others were from local towns close

Starting point is 00:31:26 to San Juan Dunare called Los Estigos Anguidia. The one victim that is the most information about online is Luis Chemaria Martinez, who was identified by the Associated Press as a quote-unquote long-time local crime boss that made his money mostly from smuggling people and drugs across borders. He had previously been jailed after a boat he was operating capsized in 2020, killing, quote, about two dozen people, end quote, including several of his relatives. He was jailed in Venezuela, to be clear. Some family members believe that Che Maria was one of two bodies that have washed up on the shores of Trinidad and Tobago, per an anonymous source who spoke

Starting point is 00:32:09 with N plus Univision from Martinez's native Guidia. The anonymous source compared Chemaria to an errand boy for drug traffickers, not the owner. Per the killing spree report by the Washington office on Latin America, there's a significant possibility that many of the victims who died in that first strike were passengers traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago. The report cites El Klip and I will hear as well. Quote, some people who are familiar with boat movements, end quote, along the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela, told El Klip that,

Starting point is 00:32:45 quote, it is common for the same boats that carry drugs on the outward journey to bring passengers back. The Capitanes, as the boat operators are known, take whatever work they can get, end quote. The second boat strike we know of occurred on September 15, 2025. Alejandro Carranza Medina, a Colombian man, was when a free men killed by that boat strike. Family members told RTVC, a Colombian news outlet, that he had been on board the boat and that it was an artisanal fishing vessel. Siding the video posted by the Trump administration online, family members posited that the ship had been having engine trouble at the time that it was fired upon. When the New York Times spoke with Caranza Medina's family, the mother of his

Starting point is 00:33:33 free children said that he had never been involved in drug smuggling. Quote, if he was some kind of narco-terrorist, then why are we living in misery instead of a mansion? She asked a reporter. Gustavo Petro, who is still president of Colombia at the time he made these remarks, said that Caranza Medina might have been involved with drugs intermittently as many fishermen are forced to because poverty leaves him little else in terms of work. Her reporting from El Eraldo and the New York Times, he had previously pled guilty in a scheme to steal weapons confiscated during legal proceedings, but it appears that he never served jail time for this. I add this context, because the truth of who these people were,

Starting point is 00:34:15 were is extremely nuanced, and regardless of whether they were quote-unquote criminals in the eyes of the state or not, they did not deserve to be killed. In fact, as Petro said, for these poor communities, because of the economic desperation these fishermen face, it's common for them to be extremely vulnerable to being exploited by drug trafficking organizations. Per the team behind Los Bombardillos, the four men killed during the October for 2025 strike, were also from Guiria. Luis Ramon Amundarang had traveled from his home to Trinidad and Tobago in search of work. He was a motorcycle taxi driver and a boat captain who accepted his first drug running job

Starting point is 00:34:57 because he had no other way to pay for his youngest daughter's dermatology treatment or to feed his four other children. According to El Clip, Ramon's cousin, Robert Sanchez, was also on the boat and was killed. For the AP, Robert had been pushed by economic pressure to join a drug smuggling job in hopes of getting enough money to buy an engine for his fishing boat. Ramon's wife told El Klip that, quote, if Ramon had really been a narco-terrorist, if he'd had money, if he'd been living large. Believe me, I wouldn't be living where I live now. And if you go to the homes of the other free men they killed, you'll see that they don't have much either because none of it belonged to them. them, end quote. I should say that El Klip notes that all signs point to them about to go on a run for

Starting point is 00:35:48 illicit cargo, but a friend of Ramon's told Al-Clip that he was sure no drugs were on board at the time the boat was hit, because a boat traveling from Trinidad and Tobago to Venezuela is going to pick up merchandise, not deliver it. Quote, boats carry drugs from South America, northwards, not the reverse, end quote, said Maria Theresa Aronderos, director, end founder of El Gleep to the Guardian. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

Starting point is 00:36:29 I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed.

Starting point is 00:36:55 And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interest and they complain about the very thing they're seeing. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes, was not going well with a lot of black men.

Starting point is 00:37:19 Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off, I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all going to scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same vein. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. 12 seats, those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030, you better be hitting the ground going hard in the South now.

Starting point is 00:37:44 Download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. You broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of betrayal, we meet Carl Bryant. Carl thought he was living a normal, drama-free life until the messages started. You will have hell to pay. For nine months, someone infiltrated every aspect of Carl's life, threatening to ruin him. Cyberstalking, swatting, extortion, impersonation.

Starting point is 00:38:20 And then the text threats escalated. Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. It's playing out in real life, not just on the phone. Every piece of evidence pointed to one man. But every piece of evidence was a lie. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The new NFL season is here, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61.

Starting point is 00:38:59 Last year, we had Mike McDonald, Sam Darnold on the field after the game. But that was last year. If you're a football sicko like me, NFL Daily is your kind of show. It is in the name NFL Daily, Freshly. content in your feed every day all season long. Matthew Stafford coming off his MVP season. On a dazzling darts from Matthew Stafford. Big time trades that shake up the NFL. H.A. Brown is loose. And of course, those Seahawks trying to run it back and win another Lombardi trophy. The Seahawks win Super Bowl 60. They are bringing the Lombardy back to the Northwest.

Starting point is 00:39:40 If it's happening on a football field, NFL Daily will cover it. Listen to NFL Daily on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Dear honies, this is goodbye. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author Patramathers and her husband Michael mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know that they had died. By the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead. next stop, Wonderland. Patra and Michael were by all accounts

Starting point is 00:40:13 healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? I would have given a million reasons to not leave this world had I known. I keep coming back to, I truly hope that Petro was a thousand percent on board with the plan.

Starting point is 00:40:33 Do you think of him as having killed her? Yes, I do. I hold Michael responsible from him. other stuff. I'm Leon Nafeck. And I'm Alice Gregory. Together we set out to interview everyone who got one of Patriot and Michael's letters as one married couple trying to understand another. Listen to death of an artist on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every case has a story. Every victim has a voice, but will it be heard? I mean, it's he grace. On crime stories, we go beyond headlines to examine evidence.

Starting point is 00:41:09 challenge the story we're fed and pursue justice for victims and their families. Please join us at Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts. Hope you join us. I'll see you there, friend. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sycambe. Have you ever watched a game and wondered what really made the difference beyond the final

Starting point is 00:41:33 score? That's exactly why we created NFL pro. He's throat. Got a man wide open. Seahawks. Every week we use exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content to break down the biggest stories, matchups, and moments from around the league. We go beyond the box score to uncover the numbers, the tendencies, and details that help

Starting point is 00:41:54 explain what actually happened on the field. Fires it out in the flat to Barclay who beats one man, spins past another, leaps over at third. And don't worry, this isn't just a show for stats experts. We use advanced analytics to help tell the story. story behind the game, turning the numbers into insights that every fan can understand and enjoy. So whether you're a casual fan learning more about football or a hardcore fan who can't get enough analysis, our goal is to help you see the game in a whole new way. If you've ever wanted to know why a playwork, how a matchup was won, or what most fans missed on Sunday, NFL

Starting point is 00:42:33 Pro delivers insights you simply can't get anywhere else. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On October 14th, 2025, a strike killed six people. Chad, Charpo Joseph, and Richie Samarou were among the victims. They were both from Trinidad and Tobago, and they were fishermen, per CNC-free TV. Joseph's grandfather characterized a strike as a, quote, active evil, end quote. They seemingly had no connection with drug trafficking other than Joseph's uncle being a, quote, unquote drug lord for the T&T Guardian.

Starting point is 00:43:20 Per lawsuit filed by the families of Joseph and Samaru against the U.S. government in the district of Massachusetts, Samaru was working on a farm in Venezuela and had called his sister days before he was killed to let her know that he had found a ride to Trinidad. Similarly, Joseph had told his wife he had found a boat ride from Venezuela back home and would see her in a couple of days. They never arrived. Her air wars, Dushak Milovich from Guiria was also one of the men killed during that strike. He had once been a cadet at the Venezuelan National Guard Academy, but dropped out to run drugs, per the AP.

Starting point is 00:43:59 The lawsuit against the U.S. by the families of Joseph Ansamaru is currently stalled pending the completion of judicial proceedings in Trinidad and Tobago that would declare the two men legally deceased and allow their families to take control of their estates. per the Trinidad Daily Express. I'm sorry to say that I don't have the time to name all of the victims that we know of or the circumstances which led to them being killed in the ocean, forced into an unmarked grave. However, you can see the picture that's building through the strikes that I've mentioned. These people appear to be either common fishermen or forced into smuggling drugs because that's the only type of work that they could find in a poverty that they had lived through, most of their lives.

Starting point is 00:44:47 Even the ones who were nominally part of a drug trafficking organization, perhaps one of the 24 on the secret list were low-level members at most or only, quote-unquote, affiliated, perhaps because they were traveling on the same boat as someone who was a member or hitched a ride on a boat carrying drugs. The truth is we will likely never know the full details of who all these people were and what made the U.S. target them specifically. After the first strike, an official admitted that only one victim was considered a member of a designated terrorist organization per the intercept. The rest were affiliates.

Starting point is 00:45:26 Pentagon officials have claimed that they knew the identities of everyone on that first vote, but per Senator Mark Warner, ranking Democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in an interview with ABC, quote, they don't know all of the individuals on many of the other boats, end quote. I should also mention here that maritime interdictions have not stopped while these boat strikes have gone on. Per El Clip, on the same day as that very first strike, the Colombian Aerospace Force, its Dominican counterpart, and the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force South, carried out Operation Seuss, which led to the seizure of nearly 450 kilos of cocaine and the arrest of two people. Seuss and other operations like it have occurred in parallel to the violent extrajudicial killings of the boat strikes.

Starting point is 00:46:18 This shows that contrary to what the Trump administration has said, blowing up random people on boats isn't the only way to curb drug trafficking. There is certainly another way to stop it that doesn't involve murder and guarantees a person's day in court. This is in line with a new tactic utilized in the Eastern Pacific and the character. where Safcom forces have been interdicting alleged floating refueling stations that support illicit drug trafficking. Many of the publicly listed press releases related to these inedictions specify that they operate for Los Choneros. These vessels are also sunk via an explosion and per the press releases I've read, the crew on these ships are disembarked and then handed over to their respective countries' authorities.

Starting point is 00:47:08 However, speaking of a day in court, free people have been rescued as survivors in two incidents. On October 16, 2025, two men were pulled from a sinking semi-submersible vessel. Andres Fernando Tufino Chila of Ecuador had previously been convicted of cocaine distribution, but his sister told El Paso that he'd been working as a fisherman before the U.S. struck the vessel he was on. Jonathan Obando, the second survivor who's from Colombia, had no criminal history and no cartel links, according to El Paiz. Even though Trump promised to prosecute them, they were eventually let go without being formally charged by either the U.S. or their home countries. Obviously, this begs the question, if these people are really, quote-unquote, narco-terrorists, why have they been able to go free? As El Paix notes, Trump's strategy is paradoxical.

Starting point is 00:48:06 The Trump admin has enough justification to kill them extrajudicially, but not to charge these men in a court of law, question mark. All possible evidence that could link these men to alleged drug trafficking, if there ever was any in the first place, goes up in literal smoke the moment that these boats are hit. El Paiz noted, it's likely that a court case would expose much of the legal scaffolding that upholding that upholds the Finn legal justification that the Trump administration is using for these strikes,

Starting point is 00:48:36 as well as put on display that many of these people might really just be fishermen forced into participating in the drug trade as a lookout or a guide or something like that because they had no other opportunities. A note on survivors, there haven't been more of them because the U.S. is apparently intent on not looking for them. per the intercept after December 30 strikes sank free vessels, Safcom said that it, quote unquote, immediately notified the Coast Guard, but it took the Coast Guard almost 45 hours to begin searching the attack zone for survivors. It is believed that the 11 people on these vessels drowned at sea. To end this section on March 21st, the Ecuadorian ship La Negra Francisco Adwarte II, which was coming back from weeks of fishing at sea

Starting point is 00:49:25 was hit by an apparent U.S. military drone strike, according to N-plus Univision. The crew had been forced off of the boat by apparent U.S. military personnel, although it's unclear from which agency they could have been. Photos from another ship that was detained in the region show that it might have been Coast Guard personnel, per N-plus's reporting.

Starting point is 00:49:48 Crew of La Negra Francisco Duarte II, as well as the Don Maka, which was intercepted on April 30th, alleged to DropSight News and Mongaveh Latam, that they were arbitrarily detained and tortured. The crew of the Negra Francisco Duarte was moved roughly 900 miles north from their position and turned over to the Salvadoran Coast Guard. Meanwhile, the crew of the Don Maka told DropSight

Starting point is 00:50:13 they had been, quote, held hostage and hooded for eight days. La Fiorela, another Ecuadorian ship, and its crew went missing in January, per the New Yorker. The wife of the captain who commanded the ship told Dropsite that her husband had called her on an emergency line saying that, quote, American aircraft, two drones, and a blue patrol ship, end quote, had been circling the boat. The next day, the Fiorella and its crew disappeared. The prosecutor who had led the investigation into the Fiorela's disappearance was shot dead

Starting point is 00:50:47 alongside her sister in Manta, per the New Yorker. There do not appear to be any links between these free boats in drug trafficking, for the report cited earlier. Unlike the boat strikes, the U.S. has not taken boastful credit for the disappearance and detention of these ships and actively denies having done anything to harm them. For their part, the Salvadoran military says that the men of the Francisco Duarte had been shipwrecked and then rescued as part of a quote-unquote humanitarian operation. It's unclear if these are related to Operation Southern Spear or Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, its evolution.

Starting point is 00:51:26 There was a brief two-month pause on these boat strikes from July 21 to August 23rd, but at time of recording, the strikes have continued unabated. There appears to be no end in sight for this terror. These strikes are part of the Trump administration's, focus on exerting control over the Western Hemisphere, the so-called Trump corollary to the Monbrough doctrine. As part of this renewed focus on the region, Trump attacked Venezuela and kidnapped its president Nicolas Maduro. He is currently sitting in jail in New York. Meanwhile, the U.S. has started partnering with other countries in the region to attack so-called narco-terrorists.

Starting point is 00:52:08 These countries, such as Ecuador, Colombia, and Honduras, have agreed to join operations on their soil with U.S. personnel. These include airstrikes, which I previously mentioned as the attack on that dairy farm. It's clear that this rising tide of anti-narco-terrorism actions will become more prominent across Latin America. I should also say, quote-unquote, anti-narcoterrorism actions, alleged narco-terrorism. On September 22nd, the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Republic of Dominican, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guilana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, published a joint statement declaring that they were announcing the, quote, first joint action under our newly announced pillars, individual and collective action to confront the scourge of narco-terrorism.

Starting point is 00:53:04 As such, we declare our intention to impose as applicable and in accordance with our respective international and domestic legal obligations. as it freezes immigration and visa restrictions for members, associates, and supporters of the organizations, and criminal liability for individuals knowingly providing material support, including logistical support, to the organizations, among other measures. This announcement has seemingly been a long time coming. At a conference of the America's counter-cartel coalition in March 26, Stephen Miller told Latin American military leaders that, quote, these organizations can only be defeated with military power. And I see some heads nodding up front because they understand you're dealing with a lot of lawyers in your country, I'm sure.

Starting point is 00:53:51 You have my permission not to listen to them, end quote. This is frightful, to be honest with you. There's not enough space in this episode today, but I assure you I will talk about this more later at some point. if you want a brief intro into what the U.S. is done in Latin America before you can listen to my episodes on the Dominican Republic and my episode on the U.S.'s colonies. To be honest with you, things are not looking good in terms of democratic rights in the Americas. I want to end this episode by highlighting this quote from the Washington office on Latin America, Killingsprey report. quote, if normalization of the boat strikes takes hold and the U.S. president can assert an unlimited license to kill, the protections of the rule of law will be gravely weakened for all of us, not just those who are the most immediate targets of state violence.

Starting point is 00:54:51 Thank you for listening. You can find me on all social media as at Vacero 2x, and you can follow Cool Zone Media. At Cool Zone Media pretty much a perfect. media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, Coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency. It does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slas.

Starting point is 00:55:34 slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going, they are playing y'all for fools. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts.

Starting point is 00:55:47 Or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez. And I'm October Gonzalez. But you can call me Toby. We want you to join us on our new podcast, No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce,

Starting point is 00:56:03 and all the nitty-gritty stuff we all think about, but just don't say out loud. You're probably just going to be some rich guy and he's going to whisk you away. Oh, this is awkward. Listen to no safe words with October and Tony Gonzalez on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:56:20 I'm Kerry Champion, and in this new season of biggest rivalries of all-time podcast, we take you back to the very first rivalry of the WNBA. The comments were the real deal. I mean, come on. The Liberty was just tough. Oh, God. The New York Liberty versus the Houston Comets.

Starting point is 00:56:37 When we hit the floor, it was hot, heated, fights, elbows, competition, trash talking. Who is the better team? People live, but numbers don't. Listen to biggest rivalries of all time on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of IHart Media, and host of the podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing. have some new exciting interviews coming to the Math and Magic feed this fall. IHeart's own Hoda Kotbe is joining me to talk about her new business venture and podcast, Joy 101. Your timeline is not anybody else's. Stay in the game and let them find you. I'm also talking to Capital One's

Starting point is 00:57:20 Mark Mentory and marketing executive Diego Scottie. Purpose driven on marketing should be part of your mainstream marketing. Listen to Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers and Marketing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey everybody, it's me, Debbie Kamaabelle. This season on my podcast, Who's With Me, I speak with Bruce Lee's daughter, Brandon Lee's sister, and my friend, Shannon Lee. Back to your initial point of stewarding my father's legacy and giving my energy to that. You're lending your life to stewarding somebody else's life. Listen to Who's With Me with Debbie Kumabelle on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:58:03 The new NFL season is here. And you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. It is in the name, NFL Daily. You'll have fresh content in your feed every day all season long. That game-winning drive. Maybe it's Herbert. Maybe it's Gino. Maybe it's Mahomes.

Starting point is 00:58:20 We'll have the highlights. If Fernando Mendoza or any of the rookies are balling out, we'll break down the tape. Join me, Greg Rosenthal, and an all-star cast of co-host as we preview and recap every game. Listen to NFL Daily on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Coleman.

Starting point is 00:58:39 And I'm Trevor Sikkimah. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week, we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fan, or a die-hard fan. NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHaw.

Starting point is 00:59:03 Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

It Could Happen Here - US Military Boat Strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific

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