Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday his government believes one of the boats recently bombed by the United States in its campaign against suspected drug traffickers was carrying Colombian citizens.
“A new war zone has opened: the Caribbean,” Mr. Petro wrote on
Mr. Petro did not provide further details.
The US military has launched at least four deadly strikes against civilian boats in the Caribbean since early September, killing 21 people. The Trump administration has characterized its military buildup in the Caribbean Sea as targeting Venezuela and its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, whom the administration has accused of leading a terrorist organization that is flooding the United States with drugs.
This is the first time another country has claimed its citizens were killed in these attacks.
Most of the region’s cocaine comes from Colombia, according to the United Nations, while fentanyl, which causes many more overdose deaths, is produced in Mexico. Legal analysts have called the attacks on the boats illegal. And Mr. Maduro said the real goal of the campaign appears to be his ouster.
Two U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive subject, also said Colombians were aboard at least one of the boats recently destroyed by the United States.
Mr. Petro, a left-wing leader nearing the end of his four-year term, has sharply criticized President Trump’s military campaign in the region.
Mr. Trump has said those killed in the recent attacks were drug dealers, but has provided no evidence and failed to give the public a clear legal basis for the attacks. In the case of the first two boats, the Trump administration identified those killed as Venezuelans. She did not identify the nationality of those killed in the other two attacks.
After Mr. Petro’s announcement, the White House denounced his comments as “baseless” and “reprehensible” and sought to pressure the Colombian leader to retract, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly on a security matter.
The official said a retraction would allow both countries to refocus on strengthening their relationship, an apparent acknowledgment that Mr. Petro’s statement risked straining bilateral relations between the United States and Colombia.
Julian E. Barnes And Tyler Pager contributed reporting from Washington.
