❓WHAT HAPPENED: Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized a U.S. military strike on a drug trafficking vessel, calling it “murder.”
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the Trump administration, the U.S. military, and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua organization.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The strike occurred on Tuesday in the southern Caribbean; Petro’s comments followed on Wednesday.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Those who transport drugs are not the big narcos, but very poor young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific.” – Gustavo Petro
🎯IMPACT: The strike killed 11 cartel operatives, sparking criticism from Petro and highlighting ongoing tensions over U.S. anti-drug policies.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has condemned a U.S. military strike on a Venezuelan Tren de Aragua drug trafficking vessel, labeling the operation “murder.” The strike, which took place on Tuesday in the southern Caribbean, resulted in the deaths of 11 traffickers designated as “narcoterrorists” by President Donald J. Trump.
Petro complained, “Those who transport drugs are not the big narcos, but very poor young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific.” He further complained that, for decades, drug transporters had been captured without being killed.
Colombia, the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, has faced decades of violence at the hands of cartels and communist militias involved in the drug trade. Petro, a former member of the violent Marxist 19th of April Movement (M-19) urban guerrilla faction, has sought to negotiate with armed groups since taking office in 2023. However, criminal organizations—especially Colombia’s infamous drug cartels—have only grown stronger during his tenure.
According to United Nations (UN) data, Colombia exported a record 2,664 metric tons of cocaine in 2023. Relatedly, the United States saw nearly 30,000 cocaine-related overdose deaths in the same year, driven predominantly by the drug increasingly being cut with fentanyl. President Donald J. Trump designated several Latin American cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and authorized military action against them in February.
Petro has previously courted controversy by claiming that cocaine is banned globally because it is primarily produced in Latin America, insisting it is “not worse than whiskey.”
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