Rights Groups Battle Administration Over Secret Memo on Fatal Boat Strikes

The American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Constitutional Rights argue that the government cannot invoke secret legal interpretations to authorize attacks that have killed at least 215 people since September. While the administration claims executive privilege to shield the document, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer questioned the breadth of that assertion, asking whether the government believes any presidential communications privilege is immune to waiver.

Legal advocates contend the strikes rely on a fabricated narrative of armed conflict with cartels to bypass international law. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, the memo allegedly attempts to immunize personnel from future criminal prosecution for what would otherwise constitute homicide. The administration continues to defend the operations, asserting that disclosure would compromise intelligence sources, yet families of the victims and officials in Venezuela and Colombia maintain that many of those killed were local fishers with no ties to the drug trade.