Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that a speedboat recently bombed by the United States was “Colombian, with Colombian citizens inside.”
The White House called his accusation “baseless.”
The U.S. has attacked at least four boats in the Caribbean in the past few weeks, killing 21 people. Washington says the boats were “narco-traffickers” in international waters, but has not yet shown any proof. Several Caribbean and Latin American countries have protested, saying the strikes may violate international law.
President Donald Trump confirmed the most recent strike on October 3, posting a video on his Truth Social account. The U.S. Senate narrowly rejected a proposal to limit Trump’s authority to order such strikes without Congress’s approval.
Petro responded online to Senator Adam Schiff, who wanted to block Trump’s actions. Petro wrote that “a new war scenario has opened up: the Caribbean,” and claimed the latest boat was Colombian. He added, “There is no war against smuggling; there is a war for oil. The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The White House replied that it expects Petro to “retract his baseless and reprehensible statement,” while saying the U.S. still values cooperation with Colombia on “regional security and stability.”
A leaked memo to Congress said the U.S. now classifies itself as being in a “non-international armed conflict.” This label helps justify the use of wartime powers, such as targeting “enemy fighters.” Trump has already listed several drug cartels in Latin America as terrorist groups, giving the U.S. military broader authority to act against them.
Source: BBC.
