Those close to Alejandro Carranza say he left his home on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to fish in open waters. A few days later he was dead – one of 32 suspected drug traffickers killed in American military strikes.
From Santa Marta in northern Colombia, Carranza’s family is questioning White House claims that he was transporting narcotics aboard a small vessel targeted last month.
For his wife Katerine Hernandez, the forty-year-old was “a good man” devoted to fishing.
“Why did they just take his life like that?” » she asked during an interview on Monday with AFP.
She denied any links to drug trafficking.
“The fishermen have the right to live. Why didn’t they arrest them?”
The Trump administration said The United States is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they transport kill tens of thousands of Americans each year, constituting an “armed attack.”
Since the United States began bombing ships in the Caribbean in September, critics have accused the Trump administration of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
The White House and Pentagon have produced little evidence to support their claims that those targeted were involved in trafficking.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a critic of the U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, also said Carranza was innocent.
Petro said his crew suffered a mechanical failure at sea.
“The Colombian boat was adrift with a distress signal, the engine raised,” Petro wrote on Saturday on X. “He had no connection with drug trafficking. His daily activity was fishing.”
However, Colombian media reported that Carranza had a criminal record for stealing weapons in collusion with gangs.
Prosecutors contacted by AFP refused to confirm or deny this information.
The US government has released statements and images showing strikes on at least seven boats allegedly carrying drugs, killing at least 32 people.
“The days passed and he didn’t call”
Before his final trip, Carranza told his father he was heading to a place “with good fish.”
Days passed without contact, until the family learned of the attack on television.
“Days went by and he didn’t call,” Hernandez said.
MARCO PERDOMO/AFP via Getty Images
These deadly strikes sparked a diplomatic row between the United States and Colombia, historically close partners.
Petro condemned the attack as a violation of Colombian sovereignty and called it an “assassination.” In an article on X, Petro said the US operation was part of a “failed strategy” to “control Latin America…and get cheap oil from Venezuela.”
Mr. Trump later called Petro an “illegal drug leader” and threatened to cut off U.S. aid to the South American country.
Last month, Washington announced that it had Colombia decertified as an ally in the fight against drugs. Colombia responded by ending its arms purchases from the United States, its largest military partner.
Friends interviewed by AFP also said Carranza was a fisherman.
“He went offshore to catch sierra, tuna and snapper, which are found far away this time of year,” said Cesar Henriquez, who has known him since childhood.
“He always came back to Santa Marta, secured his boat and went home. I never saw him do anything wrong,” Henriquez told AFP.
A Colombian and an Ecuadorian are the only survivors so far American attacks in the Caribbean. A US Navy helicopter transported survivors of the semi-submersible attack to a Navy ship, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News on Friday.
The Colombian, repatriated in serious condition, will be tried as a “criminal” accused of drug trafficking, according to the government.
THE An Ecuadorian has been released after authorities said there were no pending charges. A government official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, told The Associated Press that the Ecuadorian man, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, was in good health following medical evaluations.
