President Petro: US violated Colombia’s sovereignty, killed fisherman in Sept. strike
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has condemned the United States for violating the Latin American country’s sovereignty and killing a fisherman in its September airstrike.
“US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro said on Saturday in a statement on X.
The Colombian leader identified the deceased fisherman as Alejandro Carranza, adding that he had “no ties to the drug trade.”
The fisherman reportedly died when his boat came under attack in a September airstrike carried out by US forces while he was fishing in the Caribbean, as per a video testimony of his family members, which was shared by Petro on X.
Carranza’s boat was “adrift” and had its distress signal up because of an engine failure, Petro said.
“We await explanations from the US government,” Petro added.
On the orders of President Donald Trump, the US military has carried out a series of strikes on vessels in the Caribbean, claiming that they were smuggling illegal drugs into the United States.
Trump, however, has failed to back up his claims with evidence, raising legitimate questions.
Following the latest strike, the US president said the country's military carried out an airstrike in the Caribbean on Thursday on what he called “a drug-carrying submarine.”
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Trump added that US intelligence sources claimed the Venezuelan submarine was “loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”
Four people were on board the vessel, two of whom died in the targeted strike.
The US military conducted a helicopter rescue for the two remaining survivors of the strike.
The individuals, who were the first to survive such US attacks, were taken into custody.
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