Petro: “U.S. has violated our maritime sovereignty and committed a murder”

Gustavo Petro commented this Saturday on a report that one of the bombings against a boat in the Caribbean had occurred in Colombian waters, declaring that Washington has committed “a murder” and violated the sovereignty of his country. “U.S. Government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” the president posted on X, indicating that the Colombian vessel “was adrift and with the breakdown signal on, having an engine up.” “We await explanations from the U.S. Government,” he emphasized.

Petro’s statements came after RTVC Noticias reported that the boat bombed by US forces in mid-September, which presumably remained in national waters, was Colombian.

“The person who was there was a lifelong fisherman: Alejandro Carranza, who has not returned home,” the president pointed out in another tweet, urging the Prosecutor’s Office to act “immediately” and to grant immediate protection to the victim’s family. Petro also requested to “associate them, if they wish, with the victims of Trinidad and Tobago to initiate legal actions in the world and before the US Justice System.” This is how he referred to reports that two men from that island nation, located northeast of Venezuela, had died in mid-October in a bombing carried out by the US military in the Caribbean.

You can also read: Petro urges the Prosecutor’s Office to act on US attack.

The U.S. President himself shared images on September 15th of the attack against “drug cartels and narco-terrorists, positively identified and extremely violent, in the area of responsibility of the Southern Command”.

“The attack occurred while these confirmed Venezuelan narcoterrorists were in international waters transporting illegal narcotics (A deadly weapon that poisons Americans!), bound for the U.S.,” detailed the occupant of the White House. At the same time, Trump reported that three “male terrorists” died as a result of the operation. In his words, the target represented a “threat to national security, foreign policy, and vital interests” of the North American country. Last August, the U.S. deployed a large military contingent in the area. Currently, Washington is carrying out military actions and bombings in waters near Venezuelan territory with the argument, without support or evidence, of combating drug cartels.
Caracas has described those actions as “aggression” and has questioned the true reason for the operations. The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, maintains that his country is the victim of “a multiform war” orchestrated from the US. The Venezuelan State, he has reiterated, is being subjected to an “armed aggression to impose a regime change” and a “puppet” government, in order to “steal its oil, gas, gold and all natural resources”.

These actions have also been criticized by governments such as those of Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela, as well as by United Nations experts, who have pointed out that they are “summary executions” contrary to what international law enshrines