Politics Colombia accuses USA of murdering fishermen in its own maritime territory
Following the destruction of a boat off the Colombian Caribbean coast, President Gustavo Petro has made serious accusations against the USA. "US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters," the left-wing head of state wrote on Platform X on Saturday evening (local time).
19.10.2025, 17:08
19.10.2025, 18:01
SDA
His statements refer to a report by the RTVC channel, according to which a fishing boat off the coast of the department of La Guajira was destroyed by a bombardment in mid-September and a fisherman was killed. A video published for this purpose was supposed to show the Colombian man's boat and the moment of detonation.
According to the video, the boat was in Colombian waters at the time. "The fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no connection to drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing," wrote Colombia's president. "We await the explanations of the US government."
Trump on Petro: illegal drug lord
US President Donald Trump responded indirectly on Sunday with an angry post on his online platform Truth Social. He initially misspelled "Colombia" in English: "Columbia" instead of "Colombia". The mistake has since been corrected on Truth Social, but it could still be seen on an official White House account on Sunday morning (local time).
In the post, Trump referred to Petro as an "illegal drug lord" and announced that he would stop all US payments to the South American country with immediate effect. Petro is doing "nothing to stop the massive drug production", Trump said.
The Colombian head of state is "an unpopular leader with a sassy mouth towards America", the US President continued to lash out at his counterpart. If he did not close these "killing fields" immediately, the USA would do it for him - "and it won't happen the nice way."
Trump justifies attacks as anti-drug operations
Republican Trump is thus repeating his accusation against left-wing politician Petro of inaction in the fight against international drug trafficking from Colombia. The USA has been repeatedly attacking boats in the Caribbean for weeks, justifying this with action against drug trafficking.
Petro countered that Trump was being deceived by "his circles and advisors". The biggest enemy of drug trafficking in Colombia in the 21st century was "the one who uncovered its links to political power - and that was me", the president wrote on X. He recommended that Trump familiarize himself with the situation in Colombia "and recognize which side the drug traffickers are on and which side the Democrats are on".
The USA last bombed a boat on Thursday. According to Trump, this was a "DRUG TRANSPORTING U-BOAT", as stated in a previous post on Truth Social. It was on a "well-known drug smuggling route" on its way to the USA with "four known narco-terrorists" on board, two of whom survived the attack.
According to Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, one of them was a fellow countryman. He was handed over to the Colombian justice system after being seriously injured.
