President Trump traded jabs with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, over social media on Sunday, accusing him of not doing enough to curb the production of illegal drugs and threatening to stop payments and subsidies — or worse.
“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely,” Mr. Trump wrote, hours after Mr. Petro accused the United States of killing an innocent fisherman in its campaign against vessels that it says carried drugs in the Caribbean.
Mr. Trump and the Colombian president have feuded before, but the latest episode started on Saturday night when Mr. Petro accused the United States of murdering the fisherman in mid-September, after his vessel broke down and he activated a distress signal.
That strike was the second in a string of attacks by U.S. forces that have killed dozens of people aboard vessels that, according to postings by Mr. Trump, were ferrying drugs to the United States. The administration has provided no evidence to support the claim beyond descriptions of intelligence assessments and declassified videos of portions of the attacks.
But Mr. Petro said the man killed in the mid-September attack, Alejandro Carranza, was a “lifelong fisherman” whose boat had experienced damage and was adrift, probably in Colombian waters, at the time of the attack.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Mr. Petro wrote. He also urged his attorney general to help Mr. Carranza’s family file claims against the United States. Colombian news media reported that Mr. Carranza was 40 years old and a resident of Santa Marta.
Although the U.S. campaign has been aimed primarily at those suspected of being Venezuelan drug runners, the strikes have killed or wounded individuals from other countries.
Mr. Petro suggested the Carranza family bring claims in collaboration with a Trinidadian family that also says a relative was killed in another U.S. strike.
Another Colombian, Jeison Obando Pérez, 34, was caught up in the sixth such U.S. airstrike last week, along with a citizen of Ecuador. Both survived.
They were aboard a semi-submersible that was blown up Thursday, and rescued by U.S. forces and initially treated aboard a U.S. Navy ship in the Caribbean, the Iwo Jima.
Mr. Obando Pérez was repatriated Saturday and hospitalized in Colombia with brain trauma and breathing on a ventilator, Armando Benedetti, Colombian’s minister of the interior, said in a social media posting on Saturday night. Once he is awake, he will be “processed by the justice system for drug trafficking,” Mr. Benedetti said.
The other survivor of Thursday’s attack was returned to Ecuador on Saturday and was undergoing medical evaluation.
Genevieve Glatsky is a reporter for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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