Colombian President Gustavo Petro used his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (Sep 23) to deliver an extraordinary demand. He demanded that US President Donald Trump must face a criminal investigation for ordering strikes on boats in the Caribbean that killed more than a dozen people in recent days. According to Petro, those killed were unarmed “poor young people,” some of them believed to be Colombian, who died when US forces attacked at least three vessels in waters off Venezuela. Trump has described the operations as part of the US's campaign against drug trafficking and against 'narcoterrorists'. However, UN experts have already labelled the killings “extrajudicial executions.”
What Trump said about the strikes on Venezuelan boats in international waters
Trump, speaking earlier at the same forum, made no apologies for the deadly raids. Instead, he doubled down. “To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he said, vowing to escalate the fight.
The US president has deployed eight warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean in what US officials say is the region’s largest deployment in years. This has raised fears of an invasion in Venezuela.
In Caracas, President Nicolás Maduro has accused Trump of plotting regime change, reviving memories of Washington’s failed push to oust him during Trump’s first term. According to AFP, thousands of Venezuelans have joined civilian militias to bolster the country’s defences against what Maduro describes as the looming US “threat.”
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Criminal process must be initiated against Trump and officials included in strikes: Petro
Petro, whose nation is the world’s largest cocaine producer, insisted the US strikes disproportionately hit "young people who simply wanted to escape poverty". “A criminal process must be initiated against those officials who are from the United States. This includes the senior official who gave the order, President Trump,” he declared.
The call for accountability comes against a backdrop of fraying ties between Bogotá and Washington. Just last week, the Trump administration formally decertified Colombia as a reliable ally in the drug war, though it stopped short of imposing economic sanctions.
