Lawsuit says drones destroyed the boat 385 nautical miles off Manta
The attack on the La Negra Francesca Duarte II took place on March 17 as the crew headed back to port at the end of a two-week fishing trip, according to the filing, which was seen by the Guardian. The lawsuit says the boat was struck by an unidentified US military vessel’s crew about 385 nautical miles from the port of Manta. Two armed drones exploded on the boat, setting it ablaze and destroying it completely, the filing states, and 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 they rowed toward 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. The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial compensation for the attack and for what the men describe as their subsequent “kidnapping and torture,” saying they were taken to a detention center in El Salvador and imprisoned for several weeks.
The fishing vessel’s captain, Hernán Flores, who commanded the boat for about 20 years, described the moments after it was set alight in an interview in June. “Some guys looked for an extinguisher, but the fire was already spreading,” he said. “So some of our crew leapt into the water.”
Dan Kovalik, a Pittsburgh-based attorney filing the lawsuit on behalf of the men, said the loss of the 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 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,” Kovalik said. “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 plaintiffs also want the United States to stop the boat strikes. “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,” he said.
The lawsuit was to be filed on Monday in US district court for the western district of Pennsylvania, a district Kovalik said had “experience in admiralty cases.” The filing argues that the strike was illegal because, as with other strikes during Operation Southern Spear, it was conducted without congressional authority, and that the “manifestly unlawful” attack came soon after Ecuadorian authorities inspected the boat themselves and determined it was not carrying drugs, nor its crew affiliated with any cartels.
The filing further alleges that “the wanton, willful and outrageous attacks upon, and kidnapping and torture of, plaintiffs at sea constitute torts under general admiralty and maritime law.” It states that “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,” and that “the US’s campaign of bombings against defenseless vessels and individuals violates long-standing and well-accepted international law.”
Operation Southern Spear was announced in November 2025 ostensibly to counter “narco-terrorists” the administration said operated in the Caribbean and Pacific. The Washington Office on Latin America said the US military has killed as many as 250 people in subsequent attacks, and considers the actions extrajudicial executions because the government has provided no proof that the victims were engaged in trafficking.
A Defense Department spokesperson 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 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.”
The Ecuadorian fishermen’s suit joins similar litigation already filed against the 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 what it calls “a terrifying, lawless killing campaign at sea.”
Kovalik said he expected the government to contest the lawsuit, and that it would help shine a light on the administration’s policies at a time when the Democratic party was set 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.”