Since September, the Trump administration has conducted an undeclared war in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing scores of civilians. The Intercept is chronicling all publicly declared U.S. attacks and providing a tracker with information on each strike.
The administration insists the attacks are permitted because the U.S. is engaged in “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations,” or DTOs. President Donald Trump has justified the attacks, in a War Powers report to Congress, under his Article II constitutional authority as commander in chief of the U.S. military and claimed to be acting pursuant to the United States’ inherent right of self-defense as a matter of international law. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has also produced a classified opinion that provides legal cover for the lethal strikes.
Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress, from both parties, say the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement agencies arrested suspected drug smugglers.
The Pentagon has repeatedly withheld information on the attacks from members of Congress and the American public, despite mounting questions from lawmakers about the legality of these deadly strikes.
So The Intercept is publishing a strike tracker documenting America’s newest war. The locations and casualty figures are drawn from information provided by U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Office of the Secretary of War, and social media posts by Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Number of Strikes |
Total Killed |
Total Captured |
| 30 | 107 | 2 |
December 29, 2025
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 22, 2025
- Death toll: 1
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 18, 2025
- Death toll: 5 killed in two strikes, death tolls of 3 and 2.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 17, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 15, 2025
- Death toll: 8 killed in three strikes, death tolls of 3, 2, and 3.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 4, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 15, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 10, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: “Narcoterrorists”
November 9, 2025
- Death toll: 6 killed in two strikes, 3 aboard each ship.
- Theater: Both in Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organizations
November 6, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 4, 2025
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 1, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 29, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 27, 2025
- Death toll: 14 killed in three separate strikes — with one reported survivor (eight aboard one boat, four on another and three on the last). The Mexican Navy failed to find the survivor, who is presumed to be dead, bringing the total to 15.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 23 or 24, 2025
- Death toll: 6
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Tren de Aragua (Venezuela)
October 22, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 21, 2025
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 17, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Ejército de Liberación Nacional (Colombia)
October 16, 2025
- Death toll: 2 killed, 2 captured and later repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador.
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: “Narcoterrorists”
October 14, 2025
- Death toll: 6
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 2, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
September 19, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
September 15, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: “Drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists”
September 2, 2025
- Death toll: 11
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Tren de Aragua (Venezuela)
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
Contact the author:
Related
Latest Stories
License to Kill
CIA Was Behind Venezuela Drone Strike, Source Says
The December 24 drone strike in Venezuela is the latest in a long tradition of CIA interventions in Latin America — which often lead to destabilization and blowback.
Midterms 2026
AIPAC Is Retreating From Endorsements and Election Spending. It Won’t Give Up Its Influence.
The lobbying group is taking a quieter approach this midterms cycle, but it’s still seeking to keep Congress in Israel’s pocket.
License to Kill
Did Trump Just Confess to Attacking Venezuela?
“They have a big plant or a big facility where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out. We hit them very hard.”