Seoul Gazette - Colombia accuses US of violating sovereignty in strike

Trump has waged an unprecedented military campaign that he says is aimed at choking the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States.

Washington says its operations have dealt a decisive blow to drug trafficking, but it has provided no evidence that the people killed -- at least 27 so far -- were drug smugglers.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on X that "US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in our territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to drug traffickers and his daily activity was fishing."

Carranza was reportedly killed in a September strike by US forces on his boat while he was fishing the Caribbean, according to video testimony of his family members shared by the president on X.

Experts say such summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers.

"The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal on," Petro said, referring to the strike that killed Carranza.

"We await explanations from the US government."

- 'Drug-smuggling submarine' -

Trump said Saturday that the United States was sending two suspected drug traffickers back to their native Ecuador and Colombia, after a military strike on their "drug-smuggling submarine" in the Caribbean that killed two others.

"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, adding that the vessel was loaded with fentanyl and other drugs.

"Two of the terrorists were killed. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution."

Petro confirmed that the Colombian suspect had been repatriated and would face prosecution.

"We are glad he is alive and he will be prosecuted according to the law," Petro said on X.

The 34-year-old Colombian was in serious condition upon his return, according to the Interior Ministry.

"He arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator," Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said.

At least six vessels, most of them speedboats, have been targeted by US strikes in the Caribbean since September, with Venezuela alleged to be the origin of some of them.

Washington has not revealed the departure point of the alleged drug-smuggling submarine in the latest strike.

Semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have for years been used to ferry cocaine from South America, particularly Colombia, to Central America or Mexico, usually via the Pacific Ocean.

Petro's government has repeatedly criticized the US campaign. Last month, he called at the United Nations for criminal proceedings to be opened against Trump over the strikes.

U.Moon--SG