Colombia accuses US of ‘murder’ after ship strike

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the United States of committing “murder” following a strike against a boat in Colombian territorial waters in September.

In a social media post, Petro accused the United States of violating his country’s sovereignty and killing a Colombian fisherman.

On He added: “We are awaiting explanations from the US government.”

This comes after President Donald Trump said the United States had struck a “submarine carrying drugs”, killing two people.

Writing on social media, Trump said two people were killed in the US attack on the ship on Thursday, which US intelligence confirmed was “loaded primarily with fentanyl and other illegal narcotics”.

This is at least the sixth US strike against ships in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks. This is the first time survivors have been reported.

Writing about an earlier attack in September, Pedro wrote on X on Saturday: “U.S. government officials committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters.

“The fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no connection with drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing. The Colombian boat was adrift and its distress signal was on due to an engine failure.”

Alejandro Carranza was reportedly killed on September 15 when US forces fired on his boat while he was fishing in the Caribbean.

Trump has defended the ongoing boat attacks, saying they were aimed at stemming the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States, but his government has provided no evidence or details about the identities of the ships or people on board.

U.N.-appointed human rights experts have called the U.S. strikes “extrajudicial executions.”

At least 27 people have been killed in five previous boat collisions in waters off Venezuela, according to figures released by the US administration.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday that the submarine targeted in the latest attack was “built specifically to transport massive quantities of drugs.”

“This was not a group of innocent people. I don’t know many people who own submarines, and this was an attack on a submarine loaded with drugs,” he said, adding that no U.S. service members were injured.

The US president also said two people who survived would be returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

They were transferred to a US navy ship, a source close to the matter told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

In recent weeks, Trump has increased threats against Venezuela’s leaders, saying the country was sending drugs to the United States. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused Trump of trying to turn the South American nation “an American colony.”

Trump earlier told reporters that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela and was considering launching attacks on Venezuelan soil.

Narco-subs have become a popular means of transporting drugs because they can go largely unnoticed and can be sunk after delivery. They are often homemade and constructed of fiberglass and plywood.

The United States, along with other coastal countries, has already intercepted some of these submarines.