A dangerous new diplomatic fissure has opened between the United States and Colombia, with President Gustavo Petro accusing the U.S. military of killing Colombian citizens during a recent strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea.
In a furious post on his official X account late Wednesday, the left-wing leader claimed there were “indications” that the most recently destroyed boat, part of a series of controversial U.S. anti-narcotics operations, was “Colombian and had Colombian citizens aboard.”
“A new theatre of war has opened up: the Caribbean,” Petro wrote, without providing immediate evidence for the claim. He urged the families of the victims to come forward to report the deaths and demanded Washington release the names of those killed to verify his information.
The statement dramatically escalates tensions over the U.S. military’s deployment of warships and airstrikes in the region, which the Trump administration asserts are necessary to combat drug trafficking, particularly from Venezuela. The U.S. has announced at least four lethal strikes on alleged “narco-boats” since early September, resulting in more than 20 reported deaths.
White House Demands Retraction
The White House swiftly pushed back against the allegations, issuing a strong condemnation of the Colombian President’s claims. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, reportedly called Petro’s assertion “baseless and reprehensible” and urged the South American president to publicly retract his statement.
However, the U.S. government has yet to release the names or nationalities of any of the individuals killed in the strikes, which it claims were all “narco-terrorists” carrying substantial amounts of U.S.-bound narcotics. This lack of transparency has fueled Petro’s outrage and drawn bipartisan criticism from some U.S. lawmakers who question the legality and necessity of using lethal force without a clear congressional mandate.
Petro, a vocal critic of the U.S. actions, suggested the true motive behind the massive military buildup in the Caribbean—which observers have noted is disproportionate to a standard counter-narcotics mission—is an effort to destabilize neighboring Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
“There is no war against smuggling; there is a war for oil and it must be stopped by the world,” Petro charged, warning that the “aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The escalating rhetoric introduces a significant complication into the already fraught relations between the U.S. and its regional partners, transforming a decades-old “War on Drugs” into a highly charged diplomatic and potentially human rights crisis. If confirmed, the deaths of Colombian citizens in a U.S. military operation would mark a watershed moment, forcing Bogota to confront its key strategic ally over the use of lethal force in international waters.