Ecuadorian fishermen say they were attacked at sea by a U.S. vessel

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0:25Today on State of the World, fishermen in Ecuador say their boats were destroyed in a series of attacks involving a U.S.-flagged vessel. Incidents that have left families searching for answers.

0:42You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories. Up close with their happening. It's Tuesday, May 26th. I'm Christine Arismeth. Today, we bring you two stories that have received little international attention from NPR's Carrie Kahn in Ecuador. In coastal communities there, fishermen and their families are trying to make sense of what they say happened at sea when a U.S.-flagged vessel attacked them at sea and destroyed their boats. Their accounts come amid a broader campaign of more than 50 U.S. strikes that have killed nearly 200 people in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean.

1:23The Trump administration says these operations are lawful and aimed at alleged narco-traffickers, but has not publicly provided evidence or identified victims. First, we go to a fishing family on Ecuador's coast, where a routine trip at sea turned into a nightmare they say they'll never forget. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports. For generations, the Flores family has been fishing off Ecuador's Pacific coast. Many of them, along with Lisi, the guard dog, live in this compound high on the hill above San Mateo's tiny harbor.

2:06My papi started at all since 51-year-old Jose Hernan Flores. He built the family business. But rising costs and extorting drug gangs left them with just one boat. the Negra Francisco Duarte. Flores was at the helm of the boat in early March, fishing off the Galapagos Islands.

2:28We had been out about two weeks with a crew of 16, he says. When about 1.30 in the afternoon, the guys say, Captain, look, two drones are coming at us. One then ripped through the captain's cabin. Boom, it exploded. The cabin filled with flames, he said. His nephew, Jordi Flores, lay on the floor bleeding. Everyone then scrambled into two small fishing boats and headed toward a big blue ship they had seen days before. They thought it was a tuna trawler.

3:10Flores's cousin filmed this video as he came upon the burning Negra Francisca hours later. He sent word to shore. The crew was gone. The family pressed local authorities to launch a search, and that never happened. After an agonizing week, a call came in. The crew was alive in El Salvador. Captain Flores explains.

3:37As we got closer to that big blue boat, armed men screamed, put up your hands, he says. The men spoke to each other in English. They tied our hands with plastic cuffs. He said they put hoods over their heads. Except Flores' injured nephew, Jordi. He was taken to a makeshift medical unit to treat a sliced, bleeding foot.

4:05I was laying there and I could see a board on the wall. They had drawn On our boat, the drones, they were all bickering over it, Jordi Flores tells me. But it was all in English, so he couldn't understand. The crew, hooded and cuffed, spent the night on the deck in the cold rain before being transferred to a Salvadoran flagged vessel, says Captain Flores. Once on land in El Salvador, the crew had to pay their flights home. They faced no charges in the U.S., El Salvador, or in Ecuador. NPR reached out to multiple U.S. agencies about the fishermen's allegations. The military's southern command said they had no knowledge of the incident.

4:46No one had answers either in the U.S. Embassy in Quito, the U.S. Coast Guard, the White House, the CIA, or the DEA, which told NPR it does not conduct kinetic strikes.

5:01At the family compound in San Mateo, the Floreses gather in the courtyard for a Sunday game of bingo. One of the cousins calls out the numbers. Jordi Flores doesn't join in. He's in his bed in his small house. Doctors say he needs a skin graft operation that will cost$1 ,800. The family says they're organizing a town-wide bingo night to try and raise the funds. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, San Mateo, Ecuador.

5:35Next, Carrie continues her reporting from Ecuador and speaks to another group of fishermen with a similar story, who say they are still searching for answers. In the courtyard of a small hotel off the main coastal strip in Manta, Ecuador, music videos are playing on a TV by the pool. This is as close to water fisherman Johnny Sebastian Palacio says he gets these days. I don't want to go to sea anymore, he says. That was the kind of experience you only went once in your life. Palacio was one of 20 crew members on the Don Maca ship, fishing off the Galapagos Islands in mid-March. His account is similar to stories NPR has heard from other fishermen in at least two other incidents off Ecuador's coast.

6:25First, the fishermen described being followed by a large blue boat flying a U.S. flag.

6:34All the while, drones were hovering over us, Palacio says. On March 26th, around 5 p.m., Palacio says he was below deck loading the day's catch into freezers when the first blast hit.

6:52I was with a compañero and we just heard boom. I flew in the air and then onto the floor, he says. Jaime Cervantes Macía, the ship's mechanic, was also stunned. I thought the boat's motor had exploded, he says. Then, they say, the men aboard the nearby big blue boat waved them over.

7:22They took us on board one by one, says Palacio. They were in camouflage, had assault weapons, and spoke English, according to the fishermen. They cuffed us and put hoods over our heads. I just thought, here they're going to kill us, says Palacios. In another incident, fishermen on the Negra Francisca Duarte told NPR their boat also was attacked, and the crew was taken aboard a U.S. flag boat and also cuffed and hooded. Ultimately, both crews were handed over to Salvadoran authorities and had to pay their own way home. None of the fishermen have been charged in the U.S., El Salvador, or Ecuador.

8:08We have seen the same pattern multiple times, says lawyer Juan Alvilla. He represents the crew of a third ship, the Fiorello, which in January also reported being followed by drones while fishing. The Fiorello was found burning off the Galapagos Island. Its eight crew members have not been heard from since. NPR asked multiple U.S. agencies, including the Southern Command military, to respond to the fishermen's allegations. None did. The search for answers in Ecuador has been equally unsuccessful. NPR asked local port authorities, the defense and foreign ministries, and the president's office, which declined multiple interview requests.

8:48We haven't received a report. It wasn't in Ecuadorian waters. This was Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa earlier this month in the U.S. at a forum at the Washington, D.C., Atlantic Council. He denied Ecuador had been informed about any incidents, yet also questioned fishermen's motivations and location. In an area that doesn't make any sense that they were fishing. So we need to investigate. We need to know what they were carrying, the characteristics of the boat, the evidence. Noboa, a close Trump ally, did not say whether Ecuador has asked the U.S. for information about the fishermen's claim of mistreatment.

9:28Calls seeking clarification from Noboa's office were not returned. Many of the fishermen believe they'll never get answers. Johnny Sebastian Palacio says he's keeping his feet on land for now, farming pigs and soon chickens. I'm just too scared, he says, to go back and fish again. Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Manta, Ecuador.

10:06That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.