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Colombia’s government says a fisherman killed in a recent U.S. strike near Venezuelan waters was not a drug trafficker — directly challenging Washington’s claim that its growing Caribbean campaign is hitting “narco-terrorist” targets and pushing relations with the key non-NATO ally into a new spiral.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who aligns politically with Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, has had a combative relationship with President Donald Trump and is expected to challenge U.S. actions. Yet Washington has released only limited evidence linking the targeted vessels to drug networks, and U.S. intelligence officials have declined to say how confident they are in the assessments that led to the strikes.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has insisted the intelligence is conclusive.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth said after an Oct. 3 strike.
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Over the weekend, U.S. Southern Command carried out another strike, this one targeting a vessel it said was affiliated with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Hegseth said three people were killed.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” he said. “There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike — which was conducted in international waters.”
Petro, however, claimed the boat belonged to a Colombian fisherman.
“The fisherman’s boat from Santa Marta was not from the ELN; it belonged to a humble family, lovers of the sea, from which they drew their food,” he wrote on X. “What do you say to the family of Alejandro Carranza? He was a humble human being.”
Trump responded by lashing out at Petro, calling him an “illegal drug trafficker,” announcing that the U.S. would cut off all counter-narcotics aid to Colombia, and again threatening steep tariffs. He also suggested that U.S. strikes could expand to Colombian territory.
“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,” Trump said.
And in response to Petro’s assertion, Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell fired back in a statement to Fox News Digital: “Every action taken by the Department is deliberate, lawful, and precise. The male narco-terrorists killed in DoW operations were affiliated members of Transnational Criminal Organizations actively transporting illicit material along known trafficking routes in international waters.”
While administration officials have posted video clips of the strikes and maintained that their intelligence is sound, they have not released specific evidence of the type or quantity of narcotics allegedly aboard the vessels, nor have they identified the individuals killed.
“In each case, the vessel was assessed by the U.S. intelligence community to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization engaged at that time in trafficking illicit drugs, which could ultimately be used to kill Americans,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital.
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A White House official suggested to The Associated Press that they had been “much more forthcoming” than President Barack Obama’s administration was when it authorized strikes on militants in the Middle East.
Trump insists the strikes are saving tens of thousands of lives.
“A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory,” he said after an Oct. 14 strike.
Defense experts believe it will be up to Congress to decide if they want to demand more information about the strikes, which have killed more than 30 people.
Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called for his committee to hold a panel on the strikes on Monday.
“President Trump and his administration continue to fail to answer pressing questions regarding the president’s orders to carry out lethal U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea,” Smith said in a statement.
“They have failed to demonstrate the legality of these strikes, provide transparency on the process used or even a list of cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations,” he added. “We have also yet to see any evidence to support the president’s unilateral determinations that these vessels or their activities posed imminent threats to the United States of America that warranted military force rather than law enforcement-led interdiction.”
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