The Caribbean boat strikes are being talked about all over the media and on political podcasts. Every show I’ve watched on MS NOW and the other cable news networks has been engaging in discussions about the Caribbean boat strikes and the re-strike that occurred on September 2. It’s surprising that I haven’t heard anyone mention the death of Alejandro Carranza as they argue against the strikes. I also haven’t heard much discussion about the number of passengers on the boat targeted in the 9/2 strike. Both of these facts support the argument that the operation is unlawful and the United States could be killing innocent people as they carry out extrajudicial killings in international waters.
Alejandro Carranza
The parents of the Colombia fisherman are now suing the Trump administration over the killing of their son. They refuse to accept his death until they see his remains. This highlights another cruelty of these strikes. Drug mules and people paid to transport drugs are not the “narco-terrorists” or anyone higher up in a drug trafficking organization.
They are people who are oftentimes down on their luck and desperate to make money. They could also be forced to do it via tactics traffickers use to coerce people. These people have families (so do “narco-terrorists,” but I don’t expect any sympathy for them) and the U.S. is killing them and leaving their remains in the ocean (has anyone looked into the environmental impacts of this? I assume they leave what remains of the boats as well). The families aren’t able to get the remains in order to lay them to rest.
Pete Hegseth refuses to disclose any information about the people in the boats to show the strikes are justified (they’d still be illegal). Members of Congress and the media have been pushing the administration to provide information on the people being killed in these strikes and explain how that information justifies (attempts to) their murder. Simply claiming that they’re “narco-terrorists” isn’t enough to justify their murder.
Common sense and knowledge of how drug cartels and drug traffickers operate is enough to expose the lies coming from the Defense Department and President Trump.
- People transporting drugs in these boats are not high up in the drug smuggling operation. Regular people looking to make money will agree to smuggle drugs into the United States. (Drugs have been found in breast implants and removed from the stomachs of people who swallow them in a situation where they’re caught by authorities)
- These small cigarette boats aren’t coming to the United States. The boat hit on September 2 was traveling in the opposite direction. They also don’t have the fuel capacity to make the 2,000-mile trip without stopping to refuel 7-8 times.
- There is no fentanyl on these boats. Fentanyl comes from China and Mexico. When officials make statements about how many American lives are saved by stopping the boats, they’re referring to overdose deaths from fentanyl or other opiates (heroin, OxyContin). If there were drugs on the boats it would be cocaine (most likely) or marijuana.
- When drugs are transported by boat, there’s typically a maximum of 2-3 people in the boat. (More in larger ships.) There are two reasons for this: Involving more than 1-2 people in the commission of a crime increases the chance they’ll get caught. The boats in these strikes are small and the most important cargo to drug traffickers are the drugs. Boats carrying 5+ passengers are more likely to be human traffickers or not involved in drug trafficking at all. From a document on global trafficking: A typical example of a drug mule is a single woman with two children and a mother to take care of. Something may have happened within the family, or the woman may owe money or fall behind with the rent or the school fees.
The United States Sentencing Commission’s data sheet of drug trafficking statistics for fiscal year 2024 breaks down people convicted of drug trafficking by country and race. In 2024 80.4% of convicted drug traffickers were United States citizens. In fact, due to the high demand for drugs in this country, a majority of the fentanyl is smuggled in by Americans from Mexico through legal ports of entry.
Customs and Border Protection had equipment able to detect fentanyl in vehicles crossing the border, but it had been sitting in a warehouse until Congress approved approximately $300 million in funding to install the equipment. Congress included the funding in the appropriations bill, which President Biden signed into law. The technology enables CBP to dramatically increase the number of cars and trucks it x-rays using massive drive-through screeners at the border.
Why aren’t more people talking about this?
Why isn’t anyone on cable news talking about Alejandeo Carreza or the common sense conclusion most people would come to after seeing 11 passengers on the boat from September 2. It was more likely a human trafficking, human smuggling operation or just a group of people taking a trip to Trinidad.
