Innocent Ecuadorian fishermen, who survived U.S. drone attacks, kidnapping and torture while in their country’s territorial waters beginning last January, recounted details of those attacks to Drop Site News which published their testimonies, statements by their lawyers and UN officials on April 21. Targeted by War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “Southern Spear” operation, which has carried out extrajudicial killings of 170 alleged drug-traffickers in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, the Ecuadorian fishermen reported that their boats had been inspected by their country’s coast guard and cleared to head out to sea.
Nonetheless, according to the captain of the La Fiorella vessel that was at sea on Jan. 19, and who was able to briefly report to his wife on an emergency phone line, the boat was attacked by drones. Communication ended when the boat exploded and subsequently vanished. Its eight crew members are presumed dead. The Ecuadorian government provided no assistance in investigating what happened or searching for crew members.
There are currently 36 survivors of attacks on two additional Pacific fishing boats. One, the La Negra Francisca Duarte, was attacked by drones on March 23, exploded and its 16- person crew, some of whom were badly burned and injured, were abducted, denied medical care and food and tortured by English-speaking U.S. military personnel. Painted on the blue hull of the ship where they were held was the word “spear” for Southern Spear. Despite being in Ecuadorian waters near the Galapagos islands, the fishermen were transported almost 900 nautical miles north and turned over to El Salvador’s coast guard.
Then, on April 3, the El Salvadoran coast guard intercepted the Don Maca fishing boat, with 20 crew members. The captain reported that for 24 hours his boat had been tailed by one big drone and two small drones until one of them hit the boat and caused an explosion. English-speaking military on another “blue boat,” fired on the crew, detained them, covered their heads with hoods, and proceeded to destroy the fishing boat. There was no evidence of drugs on either boat, but they were completely destroyed.
This ugly picture of gross violations of international law is elaborated in the detailed reports from Drop Site News, a key element of which is the complicity of Ecuador’s billionaire President Daniel Noboa and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele who have joined with Donald Trump, the Southern Command and Pete Hegseth in carrying out these atrocities. Noboa, whose cabinet members have refused any cooperation in investigating the attacks on the three fishing boats, has kept his country in a permanent state of warfare with police state measures, claiming this is necessary to defend against drug cartels. He has invited troops from the U.S. Southern Command and Special Operations Command to carry out joint operations with Ecuador’s military inside the country, violating the Constitution which prohibits such activity.