Since early September, President Donald Trump has ordered a series of U.S. military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea, leaving more than 30 people dead. The campaign has targeted boats the administration claims were linked to narcotics trafficking groups. One recent strike was the left two survivors, briefly detained by the U.S. military, and now reportedly repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. The latest strike has been reported by the Trump administration to have targeted suspected drug traffickers affiliated with a Colombian rebel group. The White House continues to defend the killings as part of a so-called war on “narco-terrorists,” while legal experts have resoundingly rejected the administration’s claims to wartime authorities and some in Congress have begun to push back on what appears to be the ongoing exercise of unconstrained executive authority.
In this third installment of our series, host Tess Bridgeman is joined by Rebecca Ingber and Brian Finucane to assess how the campaign has evolved—and what it signals for executive power, accountability, and oversight moving forward.
Show Notes:
- Tess Bridgeman, Brian Finucane, Rebecca Ingber The Just Security Podcast: Murder on the High Seas Part II What We Know About the U.S. Vessel Strikes One Month In (October 7, 2025, also available on YouTube)
- Tess Bridgeman, Brian Finucane, Rebecca Ingber The Just Security Podcast: Murder on the High Seas? What You Need to Know about the U.S. Strike on the Caribbean Vessel (September 9, 2025, also available on YouTube)
- Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes on Suspected Drug Traffickers (Just Security)
- War Powers Resolution Reporting Project (Reiss Center for Law and Security)
