Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the US of committing “murder” following a strike carried out on a boat in Colombian territorial waters in September.
In a social media post, Petro accused the US of violating his country’s sovereignty and killing a Colombian fisherman.
Posting on X, he said: “The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure,” when it was struck. He added: “We await explanations from the US government.”
It comes after President Donald Trump said the US had struck a “drug-carrying submarine” on Thursday, killing two people.
Writing on social media, Trump said US intelligence confirmed the vessel was “loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics”.
The US president later accused the Colombian president of being “an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia”.
He said because the US offers “large scale payments and subsidies” and Petro “does nothing” to stop the drug production, the US will no longer offer “payment or subsidies” to Colombia.
The attack is at least the sixth US strike on ships in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks. It is the first time survivors have been reported.
Writing about an earlier attack in September, Pedro wrote on X on Saturday that: “US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters.
“Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing. The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure.”
Alejandro Carranza was reportedly killed on 15 September when US forces allegedly fired on his boat while he was fishing the Caribbean.
Trump has defended the ongoing boat attacks, saying they are aimed at stemming the flow of drugs from Latin America into the US, but his government has not provided evidence or details about the identities of the vessels or those on board.
UN-appointed human rights experts have described the US strikes as “extrajudicial executions”.
At least 27 people were killed in the prior five boat strikes in the waters off Venezuela, according to figures released by the US administration.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday that the submarine targeted in the latest attack was “built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs”.
“This was not an innocent group of people. I don’t know too many people who have submarines, and that was an attack on a drug-carrying, loaded submarine,” he said, adding that no US military personnel had been injured.
The US president also said two people who survived would be returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia.
They were transferred to a US Navy ship, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
In recent weeks, Trump has ramped up threats against Venezuela’s leadership over claims that the country is sending drugs to the US. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused Trump of trying to make the South American nation “an American colony”.
Trump earlier told reporters that he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, and that he was considering launching attacks on Venezuelan soil.
Narco-subs have become a popular way to transport drugs as they can go largely undetected, and can be sunk after delivery. They are often homemade and constructed using fibreglass and plywood.
The US, as well as other coastal nations, have previously intercepted some of these subs.
With additional reporting by Ana Faguy
