The US military struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific and killed two people. The official statement was short and confident: narco-terrorists, known trafficking routes, no injuries among our personnel. The accompanying video footage: 16 seconds of thermal imaging, labelled UNCLASSIFIED.

This is not an isolated incident. Since last September, with the authorization of the Trump administration, American units have carried out multiple such strikes in the eastern Pacific - with over 170 total killed. The number is rising quietly, with little attention in Western media.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have already raised legal questions: are such operations lawful? The American Civil Liberties Union dismissed the government's narco-terrorism claims as unfounded assertions designed to spread fear.

The mechanism is simple and genuinely alarming: someone in the chain of command decides the vessel is carrying drugs. No court, no search warrant, no verification before the broader public. Two dead, sixteen seconds of video, a press release. Done.

Were these people really traffickers? Possibly. Does that justify extrajudicial killing? That is the question Washington has still not answered clearly - while the body count continues to rise.