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 from the explosions.
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 ostensibly to counter “narco-terrorists” it said operated 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 seen by the Guardian, 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, the filing states, exploded on their boat, setting it ablaze and destroying it completely, and two of the crew “were themselves set on fire and burned on their legs, arms and back”.
The men say they jumped overboard and into small emergency boats that they rowed towards the vessel, pursued by a surveillance drone. They were greeted by US military personnel in camouflage uniforms who, they said, restrained them with zip ties and placed plastic hoods over their heads.
In an interview in June, the boat’s captain, Hernán Flores, described the moments after the boat he commanded for about 20 years was set alight. “Some guys looked for an extinguisher, but the fire was already spreading,” he said. “So some of our crew leapt into the water.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial compensation for the attack, and for their subsequent “kidnapping and torture” that they say occurred when they were taken to a detention center in El Salvador and imprisoned for several weeks.
“They go out fishing, they don’t come home for a month, they’re like in a migrant detention center in El Salvador, and as we know those centers are not so nice,” said Dan Kovalik, a Pittsburgh-based attorney who is filing the lawsuit on behalf of the men.
“So there’s a lot of trauma there. 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.”
Kovalik said the loss of the fishing vessel meant none of the plaintiffs had been able to work or support their families, and they were angry that, until their lawsuit, there was no recourse against the US authorities for what happened to them.
“They would also like the US to stop these boat strikes. 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 lawsuit states that the “manifestly unlawful” attack on the fishermen came soon after Ecuadorian authorities inspected the boat for themselves and determined it was not carrying drugs, nor its crew affiliated with any cartels.
It said the attack was illegal because, as with other strikes during Operation Southern Spear, it was conducted without congressional authority.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges, “the wanton, willful and outrageous attacks upon, and kidnapping and torture of, plaintiffs at sea constitute torts under general admiralty and maritime law.
“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 US’s campaign of bombings against defenseless vessels and individuals violates long-standing and well-accepted international law.”
A spokesperson for the department of defense said in a statement on Friday: “As a matter of policy, the department does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”
In June, after details of the attack on the La Negra Francesca Duarte II first emerged, the Pentagon and US Coast Guard denied participating in operations involving Ecuadorian fishing vessels.
“We have no knowledge of, nor were Department of War forces involved in, the incidents described in those reports,” a spokesperson for US Southern Command (Southcom) said in a statement.
“US forces conduct operations under established legal authorities and hold its forces to the highest standards of professionalism, safety, and compliance with US and international law.”
Kovalik said he expected the government to contest the lawsuit, filed in a Pennsylvania district he said had “experience in admiralty cases”.
But he said it would help shine a light on the policies and actions of the Trump administration at a time when the Democratic party was about to take over control of Congress and launch its own investigations.
“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.”
The fishermen’s lawsuit will join previously filed, 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 previously, filed a first-of-its-kind suit in Massachusetts.
The American Civil Liberties Union is among advocacy groups demanding an end to what it calls “a terrifying, lawless killing campaign at sea”.
