US claims it is not responsible for strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats – so who is?

Fishermen arrive to port in San Mateo, Ecuador, on . Photograph: Dolores Ochoa/AP View image in fullscreen Fishermen arrive to port in San Mateo, Ecuador, on . Photograph: Dolores Ochoa/AP US claims it is not responsible for strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats – so who is? Three vessels have been attacked in the eastern Pacific in recent months and the crews believe the US was to blame Captain Hernán Flores was fishing with his crew about 170 miles off the coast of Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands on 17 March when an explosion cut through the air and an unmanned drone crashed into the cabin of his boat, exploding into flames. Flores’s nephew was hit. The attack split his face and cracked his foot, exposing the bone. “Some guys looked for an extinguisher, but the fire was already spreading,” Flores, who has commanded the Negra Francisca Duarte for about 20 years, said. “So some of our crew leapt into the water.” An expansive US military campaign that has so far killed nearly 200 people across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September 2025 appears to have reached the fishing fleets of Ecuador and left eight men missing and presumed dead. But the Trump administration insists it had no part in these particular operations, like the one that set Flores’s boat aflame. Flores recounted his story to members of the Human Rights Commission (CDH) while in his home town in San Mateo, Ecuador. 13 men killed : ‘These were flesh-and-blood people’ When Flores’s ship was hit, the US Coast Guard cutter Bertholf was patrolling the eastern Pacific Ocean, a spokesperson said, when its crew reported hearing “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, vessel on fire” over the ship’s radio. A Coast Guard spokesperson said that it assumed responsibility for coordinating a “search and rescue” and dispatched the Bertholf to respond. Meanwhile, Flores and his crew continued to sail their damaged ship searching for help. As they manoeuvred east, Flores said that a small observation plane followed them. “We kept our eyes fixed on it for fear it would drop another bomb.” After 40 minutes, Flores said they reached another ship that “seemed to be changing course to sail away”. “As we approached with the wounded man, we saw several Americans pointing guns at us,” Flores said. “They were yelling ‘hands up’ in Spanish, using translators. I was the first to go up; they handcuffed me behind my back, put a hood over my head, and took me to the top of the boat.