President Petro accuses US of killing Colombians in attacks on ‘narco-boats’ | Colombia
Colombia’s president drew Washington’s ire after accusing the United States of killing Colombian citizens in a recent boat attack in the Caribbean Sea.
“A new battlefield has opened: the Caribbean,” Gustavo Petro wrote on the official X account on Wednesday night.
The United States has launched at least four deadly airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats crossing the waterway since early September, when 11 people were killed in the first attack.
The leftist leader of the South American country claimed that there were “indications” that the most recently destroyed boat was Colombian and that “Colombians were on board”.
Petro, who has been a harsh critic of Donald Trump, added, “I hope their families will come forward and report this,” without offering further details or evidence.
It has been reported that at least 21 people have died since the USA began its attacks in the Caribbean. On Friday, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said four “narco terrorists” were killed while transporting a “significant amount of narcotics” in international waters “just off the coast of Venezuela”. [US-bound] narcotic”.
But the names of those killed in the so-called “narco boats” have not been released, and Trump officials have failed to provide any evidence that the victims were smuggling drugs into the United States.
White House disputes Petro’s claims sue publicly retracted his “baseless and reprehensible statement” about the boat attack. But two U.S. officials who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said he told the New York Times It was stated that Colombians were on board at least one of the boats recently destroyed by the USA.
Petro called on the White House to release the names of those killed in US attacks “so I can see if my information is unfounded.”
Washington claims its strikes, part of a massive military buildup in the Caribbean Sea, are part of a broad crackdown on Venezuelan narcotics groups it accuses of supplying the United States with cocaine.
But the decision to deploy warships and thousands of sailors off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast has left many observers wondering whether the operation was actually a pretext to remove Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.
“The mandate is hugely disproportionate to any real counternarcotics mission. So this really looks, walks and talks like a preparation for regime change,” said Juan González, the former senior White House Latin America official. he told CNN This week.
González, who served under Joe Biden, said that according to some estimates, “about 10 percent of the naval forces” were sent to the region.
On Wednesday, Maduro, whom Trump failed to oust in his first term, warned that his troops were preparing for a possible regime change attempt. “If the gringos attack, we will fight back.”
Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino López said he was preparing for a variety of scenarios, including drone strikes, air strikes or acts of sabotage, or targeted assassinations carried out by US special forces.
Writing on Wednesday, Petro claimed that the “war” in the Caribbean Sea is not about drug trafficking but about oil, a commodity for which Venezuela has the world’s largest reserves. “The world needs to stop this,” Petro added. “This aggression targets all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” he said.
On Thursday, Grenada’s foreign ministry confirmed it had received a request from the United States for “the temporary installation of radar equipment and associated technical personnel.” The approval came after days of speculation in local media that the United States would ask the country to host military assets to assist its operations in the southern Caribbean.
While some Caribbean countries such as Trinidad and Tobago welcomed the US military presence in the region, others described it as a threat to peace and security.
The Venezuela-backed Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of the Americas trade bloc, of which Grenada is a member, condemned the US deployment of warships as a “blatant violation” of international law. Grenada said in its statement that it had carefully examined the request and would make a decision only after “technical and legal evaluations”.
