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The Colombian government has asked the United States to stop attacking ships in the Pacific and Caribbean as part of an operation that Washington says is aimed at drug smuggling.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday Attacks on two alleged vessels dedicated to drug trafficking in the Pacific that left five dead.
The first attack took place on Tuesday and killed two people. A defense official confirmed that the ship was in international waters off Colombia. According to Hegseth, a second attack occurred on Wednesday that killed three more.
The attacks bring the total number of such US attacks to at least nine, with 37 dead, according to US figures.
“Colombia calls on the United States government to cease these attacks and urges it to respect the norms dictated by international law,” said the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Wednesday night.
The government of Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro, which has been embroiled in a war of words with President Trump, “rejects the destruction by the United States of a ship allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Pacific Ocean,” the statement added.
Trump and Petro exchanged angry threats on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump petro brand “Thug” and suggested that he was a drug trafficker who was leading his country to ruin, prompting Petro to promise: “I will defend myself legally with American lawyers.”
The US president also said military aid to Bogotá had been cut and warned Petro to “watch”, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Colombian leader a “lunatic”.
Last month, Washington announced that it had colombia decertified as an ally in the fight against drugs. Colombia responded by stopping arms purchases from the United States, its largest military partner.
In the statement, Colombia reiterated “its call to the United States government to dialogue through diplomatic channels” to “jointly continue the fight against drugs in the region” as they have been doing for decades.
Among the dozens of people who died in the attacks on the boats was Colombian Alejandro Carranza.
his family is questioning White House claims who was carrying narcotics aboard a small boat attacked last month.
His wife, Katerine Hernández, told AFP that her 40-year-old husband was “a good man” and was on a fishing trip when he was killed.
“Why did they take his life like that?” she said. “The fishermen have the right to live. Why weren’t they arrested?”
Drug trafficking vessels, including “narco-submarines”, are routinely intercepted by the Colombian navy. If drugs are seized, the people on board are arrested and sent to process.
