Colombian President Demands Criminal Investigation Against Trump Over Caribbean Military Strikes

Colombian President reinstated diplomatic ties with Venezuela after assuming office in 2022.

Bogota, Colombia:

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday demanded a criminal investigation against US President Donald Trump and other officials involved in this month's lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the White House claimed were transporting narcotics.

President Petro condemned the three attacks during his address at the UN General Assembly annual meeting where he also accused Trump of criminalizing poverty and migration.

"Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the US, even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump," President Petro stated regarding the strikes, adding that boat passengers were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as the Trump administration had claimed after the first attack.

If the vessels were carrying drugs as alleged by the US government, President Petro remarked, their passengers "were not drug traffickers; they were simply poor young people from Latin America who had no other option."

President Petro's statements came shortly after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that his government is preparing constitutional decrees to protect the country's sovereignty should US forces launch an "attack."

Limited information exists about the deadly strikes, the first occurring on Sept. 2 and resulting in 11 fatalities, according to the Trump administration. US officials have stated that this boat and another vessel targeted on Sept. 16 had departed from Venezuela. Three people perished in the second attack.

The US military conducted a third strike on Friday, killing three individuals.

The Trump administration has justified the military actions as necessary escalation to reduce drug flow into the United States. It has yet to explain how the military assessed the boats' cargo and determined the alleged gang affiliation of passengers.

US national security officials informed Congress members that the first targeted boat was fired upon multiple times after changing course and appearing to head back to shore.

"They said that the missiles in the Caribbean were used to stop drug trafficking. That is a lie stated here in this very rostrum," President Petro declared Tuesday in what seemed to be a direct reference to Trump, who spoke hours earlier. "Was it really necessary to bomb unarmed, poor young people in the Caribbean?"

Maduro has accused the Trump administration of using drug trafficking allegations as pretext for a military operation intended to overthrow his government.

President Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, reestablished diplomatic relations with Venezuela after taking office in 2022.

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