The U.S. Department of War reported a new lethal attack against vessels transporting drugs in the Eastern Pacific. Washington is taking "justice" into its own hands, assuming the role of regional police, with "jurisdiction" or "responsibility" over the waters of the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean, where the attacks began. Many experts, activists and politicians, even within the Republican caucus in the Capitol, question the White House’s strategy of summarily executing and, in practice, denying the right to a trial to those who have been the victims of the attacks, who, moreover, have tended to be the lower-rank actors in the long chain of command of drug trafficking.
So far, the U.S. attacks publicly acknowledged amount to 19, with at least 75 people murdered. Outside the somehow murky videos shared by Pete Hegseth on X, we don't have public information about the volumes of drugs the vessels attacked were carrying, the identity of the victims, and their concrete links to gangs like the Tren de Aragua. Some argue that behind all this is the Trump administration’s interest in carrying out targeted actions to remove Nicolás Maduro from the Miraflores Palace, not necessarily for a political motive but aimed at the South American nation’s natural resources.
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, two lethal kinetic strikes were conducted on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 10, 2025
These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and… pic.twitter.com/ocUoGzwwDO
Ecuador
Ecuadorian authorities updated to 32 the number of inmates killed yesterday, Sunday, in the prison of Machala, the capital of the coastal province of El Oro. In a scandal that should cause an earthquake at the Carondelet Palace, we first learned of four inmates dead in a dawn riot, and later of 27 who were found hanged in their cells. In that sense, I do not quite understand what prison authorities mean when they say that "they asphyxiated each other," because that sometimes leads me to understand that in those 27 hanged people we have all the picture: the victims and perpetrators.
According to what has emerged, the events in Machala could be related to the transfer of prisoners to a maximum-security prison in the province of Santa Elena, which has not yet been officially inaugurated. As part of the measures associated with the declaration of an "internal armed conflict" against the gangs, the prison system was intervened by the Armed Forces back in the early 2024, but in last August control of some prisons, including Machala, was handed over to the police.
In the broad picture, the problem of violence is there to stay. In Guayaquil, probably the locality most affected by it, a massacre took the lives of three people who were celebrating a party outside a house the past Saturday. Meanwhile, two people were shot in broad daylight the same day on a beach in Santa Elena. Finally, in Manta, province of Manabí, four people were murdered last night, Sunday, as they were leaving a sporting event. The coast remains stained red in Ecuador.
Cuba
An updated United Nations assessment of the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa in the eastern region of the country indicates that more than 90,000 homes and 100,000 hectares of crops suffered negative impacts, an estimate higher than the last official figure shared by the Cuban government itself. In addition, 600 health facilities and 2,000 educational centers were also hit to varying degrees of severity.
Twelve days after Melissa's passage, one third of electricity customers remain without power, not forgetting that the Island has chronically suffered prolonged power outages for about four years. Damage to roads and telecommunications infrastructure is also reported, while the total number of people affected amounts to 3.5 million. The United Nations called for more than $74 million to meet the recovery challenges through the so-called Action Plan for Cuba.
Some help 👇
A special aircraft from 🇮🇳 carrying HADR assistance arrived this evening in 🇨🇺 following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa. Guided by the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — the world is one family — India stands in solidarity with the people of Cuba, reaffirming bonds of… pic.twitter.com/vGWtfIkKTy
— India in Cuba (@EOIHavana) November 7, 2025
Colombia
A driver who was driving under the influence of alcohol ran over 11 people in the Colombian capital last Saturday, causing two of the four children who were victims of such great irresponsibility to suffer brain death. "We have 72 hours for them to show improvement. If not, they could be disconnected," a relative of the two children diagnosed with brain death told a local media outlet cited by EFE.
This is all for today’s report.