Dear Editor:

The Trump administration’s “enhanced counter narcotics operation" has resulted in the deaths of at least 17 people in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. This doctrine involves the deliberate and unlawful killing of individuals outside any legal framework or judicial process. It undermines the principle of due process, denying suspects the opportunity to defend themselves or challenge accusations through a fair and impartial procedure. Extrajudicial killings raises profound ethical issues centered on the fundamental violation of the right to life and due process.

Until recently, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicted contraband carrying boats without resorting to lethal force. It operated under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA) and rules of engagement for drug interdiction on the high seas that grants the Coast Guard jurisdiction to search, seize, and arrest individuals suspected of violating U.S. drug laws on the high seas, even on foreign-flagged vessels, provided the flag state consents or waives objection to U.S. enforcement.

Under the MDLEA, law enforcement teams are authorized to use warning shots and disabling fire from small boats or helicopters to stop a suspect vessel, but lethal force is not the primary method and is only used when necessary to protect life or prevent a vessel from escaping.

In the course of killing the potential witnesses and destroying the evidence, we will never know if those massacred at sea were actual criminals.

The concern for freedom loving Americans is that with Trump's willingness to send the military into our cities, they might be ordered to turn their guns against their fellow Americans.

Escalating a failed war on drugs does not address the problem, it merely layers one type of crime on top of another. Duterte’s shoot first doctrine in the Philippines demonstrated that extrajudicial killings and lack of due process was ineffective in stemming the flow of drugs into that country.

There are better and more effective ways to deal with the problem of drug abuse. Please call your elected representative to insist that they act to hold the line on extrajudicial killing.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay