Colombian President Gustavo Petro has sparked controversy in Washington by accusing the United States of causing the deaths of Colombian nationals during a recent maritime strike in the Caribbean Sea.
In a statement posted on his official X account late Wednesday, Petro declared, “A new battleground has emerged: the Caribbean.”
Since early September, the US has conducted at least four lethal air raids targeting vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the region, with the initial attack resulting in 11 fatalities.
The left-leaning Colombian leader asserted there is “evidence” suggesting the latest boat destroyed was Colombian and carried Colombian passengers.
Petro urged the families of those affected to come forward, though he did not provide additional proof or specifics to support his claims.
Reports indicate that these US strikes in the Caribbean have claimed at least 21 lives so far. On Friday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that four “narco-terrorists” were killed in international waters near Venezuela while transporting significant quantities of narcotics destined for the United States.
Despite these assertions, the identities of those killed aboard the alleged drug-smuggling vessels have not been disclosed, and officials from the Trump administration have yet to present concrete evidence linking the victims to drug trafficking activities.
The White House has rejected Petro’s accusations, demanding a public retraction of what it called “unfounded and unacceptable” statements regarding the maritime strike. However, two US officials, speaking anonymously to the New York Times, confirmed that Colombians were aboard at least one of the recently targeted boats.
Petro has called on the US government to release the names of those killed in the strikes to verify the accuracy of his information.
Washington maintains that these operations, part of a significant military escalation in the Caribbean Sea, aim to dismantle Venezuelan drug trafficking networks accused of flooding the US market with cocaine.
Nevertheless, the deployment of warships and thousands of marines near Venezuela’s Caribbean coastline has raised suspicions among analysts, who question whether the mission serves as a cover for efforts to overthrow Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Juan González, former White House senior advisor on Latin America under Joe Biden, told CNN that the scale of the deployment is “grossly disproportionate to any genuine counter-narcotics operation,” suggesting it resembles preparations for regime change.
González noted that approximately 10% of the US naval fleet has been dispatched to the area, according to some estimates.
On Wednesday, Maduro, who resisted US efforts to remove him during Trump’s presidency, warned that Venezuelan forces are ready to respond to any attempted regime change. “If the Americans attack, we will retaliate,” he declared.
Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, expressed readiness for various potential threats, including drone strikes, aerial assaults, sabotage, or targeted killings by US special operations forces.
Petro argued that the conflict unfolding in the Caribbean is less about drug trafficking and more about control over oil, a resource Venezuela holds in the largest reserves worldwide. “The international community must intervene to halt this,” he stated. “This aggression targets all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
