By Euronews 19/10/2025
Trump's comments come after Petro accused the US government of assassination and demanded answers after the latest American strike in Caribbean waters.
US President Donald Trump lashed out at his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro on Sunday and announced he would slash US funding to the country.
He accused the Colombian leader of doing "nothing to stop" drug production, in what is the latest sign of friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.
In a social media post, Trump referred to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as "an illegal drug dealer" who is "low rated and very unpopular." He warned that Petro "better close up" drug operations "or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely."
Earlier on Sunday, Petro accused the US government of assassination and demanded answers about a US strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat on 16 September.
Petro said a Colombian man was killed and identified him as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal town of Santa Marta. He said that Carranza has no ties to drug trafficking and that his boat was malfunctioning when it was hit.
"US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters," Petro wrote on X. "The Colombian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up. We await explanations from the US government."
Petro said that he has alerted the attorney general's office and demanded that it act immediately to initiate legal proceedings internationally and in US courts. He continued to post a flurry of messages into early Sunday about the killing.
Colombian and Ecuadorian citizens repatriated after latest strike
Trump also shared a video on his Truth Social Platform earlier on Sunday appearing to show the latest military strike on a submarine in the Caribbean accused of being a drug-carrying vessel.
In the clip, a vessel can be seen moving through the waves, its front portion submerged inches below the water’s surface. Then, several explosions are seen, with at least one over the back of the vessel.
The strike, carried out on Thursday, killed two people, according to Trump. Two survivors were taken into custody and later sent back to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia, according to Trump.
"It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route," Trump said in a social media post. "US Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics."
Petro confirmed Saturday on X that the Colombian man who was detained aboard what he called a “narco submarine” was home.
"We are glad he is alive, and he will be prosecuted according to the law," Petro wrote in a brief post.
Ecuador's Ministry of the Interior also confirmed the return of the Ecuadorian citizen, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila.
The ministry noted that two prosecutors met with Tufiño Chila and determined he had not committed any crimes within the country’s borders and that there was no evidence to the contrary.
With Trump’s statement on his Truth Social platform of the death toll, that means US military action against vessels in the region have killed at least 29 people.
The president has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels.
He is relying on the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the 9/11 attacks, and that includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force to take out their leadership.
Trump is also treating the suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.
The US said it was repatriating survivors of a "drug-carrying submarine" which was struck by US forces earlier this week. Colombia said the US violated its sovereignty and killed a fisherman in a September strike.
"US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters," Colombian leader Gustavo Petro said on Saturday in a statement on X.
Petro identified the fisherman as Alejandro Carranza, adding that he had "no ties to the drug trade".
Carranza reportedly died in a September strike by US forces on his boat while he was fishing the Caribbean, as per a video testimony of his family members, which was shared by Petro on X.
The President said that the Colombian boat was "adrift" and had its distress signal up because of an engine failure.
"We await explanations from the US government," Petro added.
Survivors from 'drug boat' strike repatriated
Colombia's allegations come shortly after Trump confirmed a US strike in the Caribbean on Thursday on what he called "a drug-carrying submarine".
"It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route." the US President said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Trump gave no evidence. However, he shared a short video clip which appeared to show a semi-submersible vessel in the water before being struck by at least one projectile.
Trump said that US intelligence confirmed that the vessel was "loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics".
Four people were on board the vessel , two of whom died in the targeted strike.
The US military conducted a helicopter rescue for the two remaining survivors of the strike.
The individuals, who were the first to survive such US attacks, were taken into custody.
On Saturday, Trump said the two survivors were being repatriated to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia.
Petro confirmed that the Colombian suspect had returned to his country and would face prosecution.
"We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law," the Colombian President said in a post on X.
Trump's drug crackdown
The strike on Thursday is reported to be the sixth US attack on "narco" boats off the coast of Venezuela.
The Trump administration says that 27 people have been killed in the strikes.
The US action has triggered concern among experts over the legality of such extrajudicial killings.
Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah
“For the first time,” said one human rights advocate, “there are witnesses to what he tries to pass off as acts of war but are really murders which the International Criminal Court may be able to prosecute.”
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that they bombed another boat in the Caribbean on October 3, 2025.
(Photo: screenshot/Donald Trump/Truth Social)
Jessica Corbett
Oct 17, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
This is a developing story… Please check back for updates…
Multiple media outlets reported Friday that the US military is holding two survivors of President Donald Trump’s sixth known strike on a boat in the Caribbean—bombings he claims are targeting drug smugglers and which critics argue are blatantly illegal.
Reuters was the first to report the news of survivors detained after a Thursday strike, citing several unnamed sources. According to the outlet, “Five sources familiar with the matter said the US military staged a helicopter rescue to pick up the survivors of the attack and bring them back to the US warship.”
The Associated Press confirmed the development, citing two unnamed sources who said there were survivors brought to a Navy ship. The outlet added that “the survivors of this strike now face an unclear future and legal landscape, including questions about whether they are now considered to be prisoners of war or defendants in a criminal case.”
The Intercept also spoke with two government sources who said that survivors are being held on a warship. Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war, told the outlet, “Given that there is no armed conflict, there is no basis to hold these survivors as law of war detainees.”
“The Trump administration is already using a make-believe armed conflict to kill people,” Finucane added. “Will it also use this make-believe armed conflict to detain people as well?”
Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that the US attacked “a drug-carrying submarine,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was beside him, said that more details would be forthcoming.
The reporting comes amid broader alarm about the Trump administration’s push for regime change in Venezuela. However, human rights advocates, Democrats in Congress, legal scholars, and other critics have condemned all of Trump’s boat bombings—which have killed at least 27 people—as murders.
This is the first reported case of survivors. Former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said Friday, “For the first time, some people survive a Trump-ordered strike on a boat in the Caribbean, meaning there are witnesses to what he tries to pass off as acts of war but are really murders which the International Criminal Court may be able to prosecute.”
David Edwards
October 15, 2025
RAW STORY
President Donald Trump said he was looking at military strikes on land in Venezuela after weeks of targeting boats off the country's coast.
While speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump insisted that the U.S. Coast Guard could not effectively stop drug traffickers.
"We've been doing that for 30 years, and it has been totally ineffective," he insisted. "Some of these boats are seriously, I mean, they're world-class speed boats, and — but they're not faster than missiles."
"Right now we have, I would say, none coming in through the seas. In fact, I don't know about the fishing industry," he continued. "We've almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we'll stop it by land."
"I don't want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now, because we've got the sea very well under control."
According to The New York Times, the Trump administration recently authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
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