US strike in Caribbean may have killed Colombian citizens, president says
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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday there were “signs” that Colombian citizens were killed in the last small boat attacked by the U.S. military off the coast of Venezuela.
“A new front in the war has opened: the Caribbean,” Petro wrote on the social platform X. “Signs show that the last bombed boat was Colombian with Colombian citizens aboard.”
He did not provide any explanation for what those signs were. “I hope that their families come forward and report it,” he added.
Neither Petro’s office nor Colombia’s Defense Ministry responded immediately to requests for additional information.
The U.S. government also has not identified who was aboard the boat, nor the three boats attacked previously.
Last Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela. He said the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or what group they belonged to.
The first military strike was carried out on Sept. 2 on what the Trump administration said was a drug-carrying speedboat, killing 11. U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which started in Venezuela’s prisons and was listed by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.
Then, on Sept. 15, Trump announced the U.S. military had carried out a strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela. That strike also killed three on board.
On Sept. 19, Trump in a social media posting said another strike was carried out against a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility” and killed three.
Trump has told U.S. lawmakers he was treating drug traffickers as unlawful combatants and military force was required to combat them.
Earlier Wednesday, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino told military leaders that the U.S. government knows its drug-trafficking accusations used to support the recent actions in the Caribbean are false, with its true intent being to “force a regime change” in the South American country. He added that the Venezuelan government does not see the U.S. warships deployment as a mere “propaganda-like action” and warned the population of a possible escalation.
“I want to warn the population: We have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the U.S. empire operates is not normal,” Padrino said during the televised gathering. “It’s anti-political, anti-human, warmongering, rude and vulgar.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america