Colombia\u2019s president, Gustavo Petro, has drawn Washington\u2019s ire after accusing the US of killing Colombian citizens during a recent boat strike in the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cA new theatre of war has opened up: the Caribbean,\u201d Petro wrote on his official X account on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
The US has launched at least four deadly aerial attacks on alleged drug trafficking boats crossing the waterway since early September, when 11 people were killed in the first strike.<\/p>\n
The South American country\u2019s leftwing leader claimed there were \u201cindications\u201d that the most recently destroyed boat<\/a> was Colombian \u201cand had Colombians on board\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope their families come forwards to report this,\u201d added Petro, a fierce critic of Donald Trump, without offering further details or evidence.<\/p>\n Since the US began its strikes in the Caribbean at least 21 people have reportedly lost their lives. On Friday, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said four \u201cnarco-terrorists\u201d were killed in international waters \u201cjust off the coast of Venezuela\u201d<\/a> as they transported \u201csubstantial amounts of [US-bound] narcotics\u201d.<\/p>\n However, the names of those killed on the supposed \u201cnarco-boats\u201d have not been released and Trump officials have failed to provide any proof that the victims were involved in smuggling drugs to the US.<\/p>\n The White House pushed back against Petro\u2019s claims demanding<\/a> he publicly retract \u201chis baseless and reprehensible statement\u201d about the boat attack. But two US officials, who were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly, told the New York Times<\/a> that Colombians were on at least one of the boats recently destroyed by the US.<\/p>\n Petro urged the White House to release the names of those killed by US strikes \u201cso I can see if my information is unfounded\u201d.<\/p>\n Washington claims its strikes \u2013 which are part of a major military buildup in the Caribbean Sea \u2013 are part of a large-scale crackdown on Venezuelan narco groups it accuses of flooding the US with cocaine.<\/p>\n However, the decision to deploy warships and thousands of marines off Venezuela\u2019s Caribbean coast has left many observers many wondering if the operation is actually a pretext to depose Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n