October 5, 2025
Gustavo Petro. Photo: Presidency of Colombia.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has out right rejected US attacks on ships in the Caribbean as part of the fight against international drug trafficking.
“There are no narco-terrorists on those boats. Drug traffickers live in the US, Europe, and Dubai. Those boats are carrying poor young Caribbean people. Firing missiles when you can intercept them, as Colombia does, violates the universal legal principle of proportionality and is therefore murder,” he wrote on X.
The Colombian leader described Washington and European countries as hotbeds of drug trafficking and argued that the actions of the US military are disproportionate.
In his statement, Petro also called on the victims’ families to organize themselves to demand justice and report the incident to international bodies.
The Pentagon, for its part, claimed that the boat was heading for the United States with a cargo of narcotics, although it did not present any evidence in the case. According to the White House, it has previously carried out four such attacks and proudly claimed to have killed around 20 people.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoameicano – English