JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 30th strike, ~107 campaign deaths

On Dec. 29, 2025, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon's Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out a lethal "kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people. U.S. Southern Command asserted that the boat was "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" and "engaged in narco-trafficking operations," but it released no evidence to substantiate either claim — not the vessel's origin, the organization allegedly operating it, nor the narcotics it supposedly carried. No U.S. forces were harmed.

The strike was the 30th known attack in Operation Southern Spear since the campaign began on Sept. 2, 2025, bringing the reported death toll to at least 107. The administration justifies the killings by asserting that the United States is engaged in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, a legal theory that congressional Democrats and some Republicans have challenged as lacking statutory authorization and an adequate evidentiary basis. The targets are killed on the executive's say-so, without charge, trial, or any independent adjudication of the alleged crimes — the defining pattern of the campaign.

The Standing records this as a federal extrajudicial action. Lethal force was applied as a substitute for due process: people were killed on suspicion asserted by the executive rather than on proof tested by any court. This entry documents one strike in a continuing series The Standing has archived, sitting one day earlier than the previously earliest-recorded strike and distinct in date, location, and victims from the Dec. 30 convoy strike and the Dec. 31 two-strike day.