President Gustavo Petro of Colombia accused the United States of murdering an innocent fisherman in an attack on a boat American authorities claimed was carrying illicit drugs, prompting President Trump to declare on Sunday that he would slash assistance to Colombia, one of Washington’s top aid recipients in Latin America.
The feuding between the two leaders reflected rising tensions in the region over the huge U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean targeting Colombia’s neighbor, Venezuela. U.S. forces have killed dozens of people in recent weeks aboard vessels that the Trump administration says were ferrying drugs from Venezuela.
The administration has provided no evidence to support the claims beyond descriptions of intelligence assessments and declassified videos of portions of the attacks. Legal specialists have called such killings illegal, because militaries cannot lawfully target civilians who do not pose a threat in the moment and are not directly participating in hostilities.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Mr. Petro wrote on social media. He 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. His description of Mr. Carranza and his boat could not be immediately confirmed.
Mr. Trump responded by accusing Mr. Petro of not doing enough to curb the production of illegal drugs, calling him an “illegal drug dealer” with “a fresh mouth toward America.” Mr. Trump also said that the United States would halt aid payments to Colombia, which has long ranked among the largest recipients worldwide of U.S. counternarcotics assistance.
The two presidents have had a stormy relationship since the start of the second Trump administration.
In January, just days after Mr. Trump came into office, the U.S. president threatened to impose sky-high tariffs on Colombia when Mr. Petro moved to block Mr. Trump’s use of military aircraft to deport thousands of migrants to Colombia.
The United States also revoked Mr. Petro’s visa during the United Nations General Assembly in September, after he called for American soldiers to disobey Mr. Trump at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York.
Still, it was not immediately clear what impact Mr. Trump’s announcement could have. The Trump administration already had slashed aid to Colombia earlier this year, as it did in other parts of Latin America.
Colombia had been set to receive more than $400 million in aid at the start of the year, according to Adam Isacson, director of defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research group. He said the earlier cuts had left Colombia with about one fourth of that.
While Colombia and the United States still cooperate on counternarcotics efforts, overall American assistance to the country had also declined from the years of “Plan Colombia,” an early 2000s initiative that wound down a decade ago and was aimed at combating both drug cartels and armed leftist insurgencies.
Beyond the effect on aid, the quarreling underscores how Colombia could face greater fallout from the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean.
Colombia is by far the world’s largest producer of cocaine, and a much larger player in the global drug trade than Venezuela, which produces negligible amounts of cocaine and plays essentially no role in the production or smuggling of fentanyl.
Soon after Mr. Trump issued his call to halt aid to Colombia, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced yet another strike on a vessel, which Mr. Hegseth claimed was connected to a Colombian rebel group, the National Liberation Army. Without providing evidence for his claims, Mr. Hegseth said the boat, which was attacked on Friday, had been carrying narcotics.
The deployment of U.S. forces is the largest in the region in decades, including about 10,000 U.S. troops and dozens of military aircraft and ships. While the Trump administration says it is a counterdrug and counterterrorism mission, officials have privately made clear that the main goal is to drive Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power.
Mr. Petro, a leftist and former member of an urban guerrilla group who became president in 2022, has repeatedly expressed support for Mr. Maduro as the crisis simmers between Washington and Caracas. The Colombian president has shown a willingness to spar with Mr. Trump, in sharp contrast to the cautious stances most other Latin American leaders have adopted with the Trump administration.
In Colombia, Mr. Petro’s positioning drew varied responses. Vicky Dávila, a journalist and conservative presidential contender, expressed support for Mr. Trump on Sunday, saying on social media, “Petro and his corrupt Government have favored drug trafficking in every way possible.”
But Senator Iván Cepeda, a supporter of Mr. Petro, suggested Mr. Trump should instead focus on the ample demand for illegal drugs in the United States. “We have a dignified president, one who does not kneel and who demands that the United States take responsibility for its role in the drug trafficking problem,” Mr. Cepeda said.
In social media posts over the weekend, Mr. Petro urged his attorney general to help the family of Mr. Carranza, the fisherman killed in the September attack, to file claims against the United States.
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.
Although the U.S. campaign in the Caribbean has been aimed primarily at those suspected of being Venezuelan drug runners, the strikes have killed or wounded individuals from other countries.
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.
Mr. Obando Pérez was repatriated Saturday and hospitalized in Colombia with brain trauma and breathing on a ventilator, Armando Benedetti, Colombia’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.
Simon Romero is a Times correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He is based in Mexico City.
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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