Ecuadorian Fishermen Who Survived a US Boat Strike Sue the Trump Administration

More than a dozen Ecuadorian fishermen are suing the US government after they survived a military drone attack in the Pacific Ocean earlier this year that sank their boat and left two of them with serious burns.

The 17 March attack on the La Negra Francesca Duarte II was part of the Trump administration's Operation Southern Spear campaign, announced in November 2025 to counter what it called narco-terrorists operating in the Caribbean and Pacific.

The Washington Office on Latin America (Wola) said as many as 250 people have been killed by the US military in subsequent attacks. The group considers the actions extrajudicial executions because the government has provided no proof that the victims were engaged in trafficking.

In the lawsuit, to be filed in US district court for the western district of Pennsylvania on Monday, the 16 fishermen insist they had no connection with the drug trade and were illegally targeted by the crew of an unidentified US military vessel about 385 nautical miles from the port of Manta as they returned from a two-week fishing trip.

Two armed drones exploded on their boat, the filing states, setting it ablaze and destroying it completely. Two of the crew were themselves set on fire and burned on their legs, arms and back.

The men say they jumped overboard into small emergency boats and rowed towards the vessel, pursued by a surveillance drone. They say US military personnel in camouflage uniforms restrained them with zip ties and placed plastic hoods over their heads.

In an interview in June, the boat's captain, Hernán Flores, who had commanded the boat for about 20 years, described the moments after it was set alight: some of the crew looked for an extinguisher, but the fire was already spreading, so some of them leapt into the water.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial compensation for the attack and for their subsequent alleged kidnapping and torture, which they say occurred when they were taken to a detention center in El Salvador and imprisoned for several weeks.

Dan Kovalik, the Pittsburgh-based attorney filing the lawsuit, said the loss of the fishing vessel meant none of the plaintiffs had been able to work or support their families, and that the two badly hurt men were still dealing with the consequences. He said the fishermen would also like the US to stop the boat strikes.

The lawsuit states that Ecuadorian authorities had inspected the boat shortly before the attack and determined it was not carrying drugs and its crew were not affiliated with any cartels. It argues the attack was illegal because it was conducted without congressional authority, and that there was no armed conflict on 17 March that could justify the use of military force against the boats.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defense said on Friday that, as a matter of policy, the department does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation. In June, after details of the attack first emerged, the Pentagon and US Coast Guard denied participating in operations involving Ecuadorian fishing vessels.

The case joins similar litigation against the Trump administration. In January, the families of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, Trinidadian fishermen killed in a US military strike in the Caribbean three months earlier, filed a first-of-its-kind suit in Massachusetts. The American Civil Liberties Union is among advocacy groups demanding an end to the strikes.