MEXICO CITY — The Trump administration has expanded its war against suspected drug traffickers, killing 14 people in attacks on four boats off Mexico's Pacific coast. The move was condemned by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The Pentagon said Tuesday it carried out strikes in international waters in the eastern Pacific on Monday. The US and Sheinbaum initially said one survivor was rescued by the Mexican Navy, although the Navy later clarified that the search for the sole survivor was ongoing.
Sheinbaum condemned the strikes and ordered her administration officials to discuss them with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
“We do not agree with these attacks, with the way they are carried out,” Sheinbaum said. “We want all international treaties to be respected.”
The Pentagon did not give the exact coordinates of the attacks. Sheinbaum said only that they occurred in “international waters.” In a post on X, Mexico's navy said it was conducting a search and rescue operation 400 miles south of the Pacific resort city of Acapulco at the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Pentagon refused to say the nationalities of the victims, any evidence that they were actually involved in drug trafficking or whether they were suspected of belonging to a specific cartel.
The latest strikes mark a new escalation in the US military campaign against suspected Latin American drug traffickers, whom White House officials have called “narco-terrorists”. In recent months, President Trump has officially designated several drug cartels as terrorist groups, and the military has sent thousands of troops, warships and fighter jets to the Caribbean to fight them.
At least 57 suspected traffickers have been killed in 13 strikes across the Caribbean and Pacific, mostly off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia. Most experts agree that the strikes violate U.S. and international law because the military should not target civilians (even alleged criminals) who are not at war with the United States.
Trump has said he has no plans to ask Congress for a “declaration of war” and that only he has the authority to declare drug traffickers enemy combatants.
The strikes have sparked protests across Latin America, with Venezuela's authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro insisting they are political and aimed at ousting him from power. After Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the US for “killing” civilians The U.S. Treasury Department responded to the strikes off his country's shores by sanctioning him and several members of his family, and Trump has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on Colombian imports.
Until this week, Sheinbaum had avoided strongly condemning the Trump administration's attacks on the high seas.
U.S. officials have warned for months that they could target drug trafficking sites in Mexico, which is a major smuggling corridor for drugs bound for America, including cocaine and synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.
The Trump administration has increased the number of CIA surveillance drone flights over Mexico, formally designated drug cartels as “foreign terrorist” groups and said it could deploy troops there to combat organized crime.
Mexico is “essentially run by cartels,” Trump said, insisting the United States must “wage war” against them.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly said she opposes unilateral U.S. action in Mexico and would view military intervention as an act of war—a nationalist position that has played well with her base.
“The people of Mexico will not, under any circumstances, tolerate interference, intervention or any other action from abroad that would harm the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation,” she said in February, adding that this included “violations on land, sea or air.”
But Sheinbaum is in a difficult position. While her supporters may demand that she take a stronger stance as U.S. strikes come closer and closer to Mexican territory, she is also under pressure not to undermine ongoing negotiations with the White House over Trump's threat to raise tariffs on Mexican imports. She said Monday that she spoke with Trump over the weekend and that the U.S. had agreed to give Mexico more time to make trade policy changes to avoid higher tariffs that were expected to take effect this week.
Mexican security consultant David Saucedo said Sheinbaum's government and the US are united in their desire to go after drug traffickers and are working closely together, but Sheinbaum should downplay that cooperation. He said that while cracking down on drug trafficking vessels might hurt the cartels in the short term, it would not have a significant impact on human trafficking.
“If they can significantly reduce the supply of drugs by sea, the supply of drugs by land will increase,” Saucedo said.
Defense Minister Pete Hegseth posted footage of Monday's strikes on social media. One video shows two boats moving through the water at high speed. One appeared loaded with packages. Both then suddenly exploded.
The third strike hit two boats that were idling next to each other with no visible cargo. Before the boats were engulfed in flames, two people could be seen.
Hegseth said “the four vessels were known to our intelligence apparatus, were following known drug trafficking routes and were transporting drugs.”
Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell and special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.
