Ecuadorian Fishers Sue Over US Strike and Detention

The fishers say they were aboard the La Negra Francesca Duarte II, returning from a two-week expedition about 385 nautical miles off Ecuador’s coast, when two drones struck. According to the filing, Ecuadorian authorities had inspected the vessel shortly beforehand and found no drugs aboard and no links between its crew and drug cartels. Two crew members were seriously burned. The others escaped in smaller emergency boats before US military personnel intercepted them, allegedly bound them with zip ties and covered their heads with plastic hoods.

The survivors say they were held for several weeks at a detention center in El Salvador and then returned to Ecuador. Their complaint argues there was no armed conflict to justify the use of force and says the US campaign violates international law. Attorney Dan Kovalik told The Guardian that the fishers remain financially strained and that the two badly injured men are still coping with their injuries. He said they also want the boat strikes to stop.

The case adds to legal challenges over Operation Southern Spear, launched by President Donald Trump’s administration in September 2025 to combat drug trafficking. US officials have provided scant evidence that vessels targeted in the campaign were involved in narcotrafficking, while the Washington Office on Latin America estimates as many as 250 people have been killed.

Other cases include a wrongful-death suit filed in January by relatives of two Trinidadian fishers killed in an October 14, 2025 missile strike, and a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking a secret Justice Department legal opinion on the strikes. Relatives of a Colombian man killed in the campaign have also complained to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Washington Post reported in August that the CIA carried out strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats near the Galápagos Islands. Eight crew members of the Fiorella, attacked in January, remain missing. Kovalik said he hopes the case will prompt hearings by the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress.