President Gustavo Petro of Colombia said on Wednesday that his government believed one of the boats recently bombed by the United States in its campaign against alleged drug traffickers had been carrying Colombian citizens.
“A new war zone has opened up: the Caribbean,” Mr. Petro wrote on X. “Signs show that the last boat bombed was Colombian, with Colombian citizens inside. I hope their families come forward and file a complaint.”
Mr. Petro did not provide further details.
The U.S. military has launched at least four lethal strikes on 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 claims its citizens were killed in the attacks.
Most cocaine in the region originates in Colombia, according to the United Nations, while fentanyl, which causes far more overdose deaths, is produced in Mexico. Legal analysts have called the attacks on the boats illegal. And Mr. Maduro has claimed that the real goal of the campaign appears to be his ouster.
Two U.S. officials, who were not authorized to discuss the sensitive matter publicly, also said that Colombians were aboard at least one of the boats recently destroyed by the United States.
Mr. Petro, a leftist leader who is nearing the end of his four-year term, has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s military campaign in the region.
Mr. Trump has said the people killed in recent attacks were drug traffickers, but has provided no evidence and has not given a clear legal basis to the public for the attacks. In the case of the first two boats, the Trump administration identified those killed as Venezuelans. It has not identified the nationalities of those killed in the other two attacks.
Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Washington.
Julie Turkewitz is the Andes Bureau Chief for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia, covering Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
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