Fact-checking U.S. military boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific as death toll passes 200

By — Maria Briceño, PolitiFact Maria Briceño, PolitiFact Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/fact-checking-u-s-military-boat-strikes-in-the-caribbean-and-pacific-as-death-toll-passes-200 Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Fact-checking U.S. military boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific as death toll passes 200 World Jun 3, 2026 3:40 PM EDT This article originally appeared on PolitiFact . Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean during a Senate hearing June 2, saying the Defense Department determined the strikes' legality and based its decisions on intelligence information. READ MORE: Pentagon watchdog to evaluate U.S. military's boat strikes in Latin America "Every strike has a legal officer on the deck that has to make a determination about whether the call is legal or not, and this is done by the Department of War, the way it's been done in other theaters around the world," Rubio said in response to a question from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., about the criteria to target boats. The U.S. military on May 30 struck another boat it said was engaged in "narco-trafficking operations" in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men and increasing the total death toll to 205 people . The U.S. Southern Command shared footage on X of the boats being blown up, but provided no evidence that the boat was involved in narcotrafficking. The U.S. military started attacking boats off the coast of Venezuela on Sept. 2; the Trump administration has said it's part of an effort to thwart drug smuggling. The U.S. has since struck at least 59 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. In October, President Donald Trump declared that the U.S. is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels and designated some as terrorist organizations. Here's a rundown of our recent fact-checks and stories about the boat strikes. Trump on number of lives potentially saved Trump has said that with every boat destroyed, 25,000 American lives were saved. That's Pants on Fire . The Trump administration has provided no evidence about the type or quantity of drugs on the boats. This lack of information makes it impossible to know the lethality of the drugs. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Even if each of the boats were carrying 25,000 lethal drug doses, that doesn't mean destroying them saved thousands of lives. There is no way to know how many lives were saved as a result of drug seizures, drug experts told PolitiFact. READ MORE: Fact-checking Trump's claim that each boat strike off Venezuela's coast saves 25,000 lives There were over 68,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths from January 2024 to December 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If Trump's statement were accurate, five boat strikes would have saved about double the nu