WASHINGTON (AP) — The death toll from the Trump administration’s monthslong series of strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean has risen to at least 199 people after survivors of recent attacks were not found.
The total includes at least 22 people who had survived an initial strike only to be hit again or die at sea during the campaign that began last September. That includes three people who survived two separate strikes this month, according to the U.S. military.
U.S. Southern Command says it notifies the U.S. Coast Guard of any survivors of such attacks, but those reports largely appear to be passed on to countries closer to the actual strike location.
When asked about any recent search and rescue efforts, Mexico’s navy said it had received an alert from the U.S. Coast Guard about the strikes this month but it did not mention survivors. The U.S. Coast Guard referred requests for more information to Mexico’s authorities.
The strikes have been contentious, with the Trump administration declaring that the U.S. is at war with Latin American drug cartels. They drew more backlash late last year after revelations that two people survived the first boat attack last September only to be targeted again in a follow-up strike and killed. Legal experts have said that would have violated laws governing armed conflict.
The Pentagon’s watchdog said this month that it plans to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out its strikes. However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what’s known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not the legality of the strikes, the inspector general’s office said.
To date, only three people are known to have survived strikes and then been rescued. Two were rescued from a semi-submersible ship accused of carrying drugs in October and later returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.
In March, the U.S. Coast Guard said it recovered a survivor of a strike that killed two others and transferred the survivor to Costa Rican authorities.
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Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.