The strikes on September 2 and September 16 killed 14 people in total, with UN experts labelling them “extrajudicial executions."
Trump dismissed the allegations, defending the operations as part of a U.S. crackdown on narcotics, even as Venezuela warned of constitutional measures to defend its sovereignty amid the largest U.S. naval deployment in years.
While addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro urged that a “criminal process” be initiated against United States President Donald Trump for U.S. strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean.
Petro claimed that “poor young people” who were unarmed died in the strikes that Washington said were part of a US anti-drug operation off the coast of Venezuela, adding that even if the boats were carrying drugs, they were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as alleged by the U.S. government.
The first attack happened on September 2, killing 11 people. The next strike targeted a boat that had set out from Venezuela on September 16, killing three people. The United Nations experts have called the attacks “extrajudicial execution.”
“Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the U.S., even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump,” Petro said
However, the U.S. President dismissed the allegations at UNGA on Tuesday.
“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 at UNGA.
The United States has sent eight warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean, marking its largest military deployment in the region in years and sparking fears in Venezuela of a possible invasion.
Petro’s comments came after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that his government is planning to set out constitutional decrees to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty in the event of an “attack” from the United States.
Speaking in New York on Tuesday, he insisted that Trump should be investigated for ordering U.S. forces to target “young people who simply wanted to escape poverty,” even as many cartel leaders reside in the United States.
Just last week, the Trump administration decertified Colombia as a partner in the anti-drug fight, though it refrained from imposing economic sanctions.
The Trump administration has defended its actions. At UNGA, Trump praised U.S. military operations against drug traffickers in the Caribbean, despite rights groups describing them as extra-judicial killings. He also pledged an international effort to enforce a biological weapons convention, backed by an AI verification system.
(with inputs from AP and The Guardian)
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