Murder on the High Seas Part VI

About this episode

Co-Hosts Tess Bridgeman and Rachel Goldbrenner are joined by Rebecca Ingber and Brian Finucane to discuss how the Trump administration’s campaign of lethal strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific has escalated and evolved in the year since the strikes began. The conversation examines the administration’s legal justifications for the strikes, the potential for escalation to targets on land, and what the creation of Joint Task Force - Western Hemisphere could mean for the campaign’s future.  This installment is part six of the “Murder on the High Seas” series, produced in collaboration with the Reiss Center on Law and Security.  Show Notes: • Just Security’s Collection: U.S. Lethal Strikes on Suspected Drug Traffickers, Operation Southern Spear, Operation Absolute Resolve    • Jeremy Chin, Margaret Lin, and Aidan Arasasingham, Timeline of Boat Strikes and Related Actions (continually updated) • Tess Bridgeman, Michael Schmitt, Ryan Goodman, and Brian Finucane, Key Questions on U.S. Killing Tren de Aragua Leader Inside Venezuela (June 15, 2026) • Brian Finucane, “Did the United States just Bomb Ecuador?” (Mar. 13, 2026) • Rebecca Ingber, The