Ecuadorian Fishers Who Survived 'Manifestly Unlawful' US Boat Strikes Sue Trump Admin

Sixteen Ecuadorian fishers are suing the US government over "catastrophic" harm resulting from a drone strike in the eastern Pacific Ocean earlier this year, and what they say was their subsequent abduction and torture, as part of the Trump administration's boat-bombing spree supposedly targeting drug smugglers.

The Guardian reported Saturday that the lawsuit is set to be filed Monday in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The suit concerns a March 17 drone strike on the fishing vessel La Negra Francesca Duarte II, which the fishers said was returning from a two-week expedition when it was bombed approximately 385 nautical miles off Ecuador's coast.

According to the filing, Ecuadorian authorities had inspected the vessel shortly before the attack and concluded it was carrying no drugs and that its crew had no affiliation with drug cartels.

However, two drones bombed the vessel, setting it ablaze and seriously burning two crew members. The fishers jumped into the water and escaped aboard smaller emergency boats before being intercepted by US military personnel, who allegedly restrained them with zip ties and covered their heads with plastic hoods.

The survivors say they were subsequently taken to a detention center in El Salvador, where they were held for several weeks before being returned to Ecuador. Their lawsuit seeks unspecified financial compensation for what it describes as a "manifestly unlawful" attack and the subsequent "kidnapping and torture."

Other survivors of US boat strikes have also said they were abducted and tortured by American forces.

“There is no actual armed conflict that could justify the use of military force against the boats, nor was there one on March 17 when the attack took place," the lawsuit states. "The US’ campaign of bombings against defenseless vessels and individuals violates long-standing and well-accepted international law.”

Dan Kovalik, the attorney filing the lawsuit, told The Guardian that the men "go out fishing, they don’t come home for a month, they’re... in a migrant detention center in El Salvador, and as we know those centers are not so nice."

"So there’s a lot of trauma there," he continued. "It was catastrophic for them. They are home now, but they are struggling financially, and the two guys who were hurt bad are still dealing with that.”

“They would also like the US to stop these boat strikes," Kovalik added. "That’s another goal of all this, and I think the US public and the media have been, honestly, not outraged enough about these strikes.”

The suit is the latest legal challenge to President Donald Trump's Operation Southern Spear, which the administration launched in September 2025, ostensibly to combat drug trafficking. But US officials have provided scant evidence to support claims that targeted vessels were engaged in narcotrafficking.

The Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights NGO, estimates that as many as 250 people have been killed in the campaign.

In January, relatives of two Trinidadian fishers killed by a US boat strike last year filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Trump administration in a Massachusetts court. The men were among six people killed in an October 14, 2025 missile strike while traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad. Their families, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), are seeking damages under the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute.

The ACLU, CCR, and New York Civil Liberties Union also filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit last December demanding the release of a secret Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion purportedly providing the legal framework for the strikes.

Relatives of a Colombian man killed during Operation Southern Spear also lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last December, accusing US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—who earlier this week survived an attempt to impeach him, in part over the boat strikes—of ordering murder.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported in August that strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats near the Galápagos Islands earlier this year were carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Eight crew members of one vessel, the Fiorella, also disappeared after an apparent attack in January and remain missing.

The Former Judge Advocates General Working Group, which includes former officials who served as legal advisers for the US military, said last year that Hegseth's alleged order to "kill everybody" in one September 2025 boat strike—which resulted in a follow-up attack on two survivors—suggested that the defense secretary committed "war crimes, murder, or both."

Kovalik said he looks forward to the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress holding Trump administration officials accountable for the strikes.

“Some of the Democrats that we met with are very interested in doing hearings on these boat strikes,” he said. “We hope this case will encourage the Democrats when they get sworn in in January to start some hearings. I think it will have that impact.”