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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Joseph Gedeon and Cate Brown in Washington

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

boats in a port
Fishermen arrive to port in San Mateo, Ecuador, on 25 September 2024. Photograph: Dolores Ochoa/AP

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.”

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