A US strike on a suspected drug boat off Costa Rica leaves 2 dead, 1 critically hurt
Mar 20, 2026, 4:00 PM | Updated: 5:24 pm
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A U.S. strike on a boat suspected of transporting illegal drugs along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast left at least two people dead and one seriously injured, Costa Rican authorities said Friday.
The attack on the alleged drug boat was reported by the U.S. Southern Command on its X account. It was the latest in a series of strikes by the U.S. on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean oceans suspected of transporting drugs.
Steven Umaña, regional operations coordinator for the Costa Rican Red Cross, said that at 8:15 a.m. Friday he received the alert from the Coast Guard about a shipwreck.
“Upon arrival, one person was found with severe burns and significant chest trauma and was transported in critical condition to the Golfito Hospital. In addition, two people were found with no vital signs,” Umaña said.
Such strikes have been sharply criticized by governments in the region as the Trump administration has taken a more aggressive approach toward Latin America and the Caribbean, including staging a military operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
According to the SOUTHCOM report, on Thursday the U.S. carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a boat it said was operated by a criminal group the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. A video posted by the administration shows an explosion of the boat.
“Intelligence confirmed that the low-profile vessel was transiting known drug trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was involved in drug trafficking operations,” the post said.
Costa Rica’s National Coast Guard Operations Center reported it received an alert about a shipwreck and dispatched a vessel 126 nautical miles from Golfito on the country’s southern Pacific coast to respond.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were aboard the boat that was struck.
The Judicial Investigation Agency confirmed it received the bodies, which were handed over by a U.S. Navy force at sea to Costa Rica’s Coast Guard Service and, once at port, were delivered to judicial authorities.
