The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, assured on Saturday that the United States violated the sovereignty of Colombian waters and murdered a fisherman in the midst of its military campaign against drug trafficking in the Caribbean, which Washington has focused until now on Venezuela.
“United States government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing,” the president said in X.
US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters
The fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing.
The Colombian boat was adrift and with the breakdown signal…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 19, 2025
The leftist government rejects the US military incursion into the Caribbean, near Venezuelan waters, where since August it has deployed ships and warplanes to stop drug trafficking from Latin America. “The Colombian boat was drifting and with the breakdown signal on as it had one engine up. We await explanations from the United States government“added Petro.
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Carranza allegedly died in one of the US attacks in mid-September, during his fishing trip in the Colombian Caribbean, according to the testimony of a family member shared by the president.
“Alejandro Carranza is a fisherman, we were raised in fishing families (…) it is not fair that they have bombed it in that way. An innocent person who goes out to look for his daily bread“said Audenis Manjarres, a relative of the victim, in an interview with public television RTVC Noticias shared by Petro.
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The US Navy says it has killed at least 27 suspected drug traffickers in six attacks on boats since early September. Manjarres assures that he recognized Carranza’s boat in the September 15 videos broadcast by international media about the military attack on the high seas and that the last time he spoke with him was the day before at 05:00 local time. Fishermen have stopped going out to work for “fear of bombing”Manjarres added from the coastal city of Santa Marta, where the family is from.
The boat attacked on September 16 was Colombian, it had one engine up as a sign of damage and was turned off, presumably it was in Colombian waters, who was there was a lifelong fisherman: Alejandro Carranza, who has not returned home.
Alert the prosecutor’s office… https://t.co/3NXO8Zkigj
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 18, 2025
“Trauma to the brain”
Earlier, the survivor of another United States attack against a suspected drug submarine arrived repatriated to Colombia in serious health, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The 34-year-old Colombian and an Ecuadorian were traveling in a semi-submersible that was bombed. Two people died in that attack, according to US President Donald Trump.
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“He arrived with brain trauma, sedated, doped, breathing with ventilatedr”, declared the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti. “He is going to be prosecuted according to justice, because he is allegedly a criminal who was trafficking drugs.“he added.
On opposite political shores, Petro maintains a tense relationship with the United States, its main trading partner. He recently asked the United Nations to open criminal proceedings against Trump for giving the order to attack these vessels. in which, according to him, fishermen and poor young people have died.
“We receive the Colombian detained in the underwater drug trafficking operation, we are glad that he is alive and will be processed according to the laws“, declared the president in X. According to Trump, the semi-submersible was loaded with fentanyl and other drugs. “It was a great honor for me to destroy a huge submarine loaded with drugs that was sailing towards the United States along a known drug trafficking transit route.“said the American president in Truth Social.
“The two surviving terrorists will be returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, to be arrested and tried.“he had announced. Until now, the Ecuadorian government of Daniel Noboa has not commented. Experts question the legality of this type of attacks with the use of lethal force in international waters against suspects who have not been detained or questioned.
AFP
