- Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned a U.S. military strike that killed 11 people on a drug-laden vessel from Venezuela, calling it “murder” and a violation of proportional force.
- Petro argued that drug couriers are often poor youth exploited by cartels and should be captured, not killed, aligning with his broader advocacy for drug policy reform focused on harm reduction and financial targeting of major cartels.
- The U.S. strike, confirmed by President Donald Trump, targeted a ship allegedly operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and marked the first known military action in Trump’s expanded anti-drug campaign in Latin America.
- In sharp contrast, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar praised the strike, called for traffickers to be “killed violently,” and blamed drug cartels for fueling her country’s crisis of violence and addiction.
- The differing responses from Petro and Persad-Bissessar highlight a growing regional divide between calls for militarized crackdowns and approaches emphasizing restraint, justice and systemic reform.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has sharply criticized a recent U.S. military operation that resulted in the deaths of 11 people aboard a vessel allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela.
In a strongly worded post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Petro responded to claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump, who confirmed via his Truth Social platform that the U.S. Southern Command carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean. Trump claimed the ship, operated by members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal group tied to drug trafficking and allegedly linked to the Maduro regime, had sunk the vessel in a “surgical” military strike. (Related: Trump authorizes military action against terrorist-designated DRUG CARTELS.)
Petro then called the action “murder” and questioned the legitimacy of Washington’s narrative.
“Bombing the boat violates the universal principle of proportionality of force and results in murder. If this is true, it is murder anywhere in the world. We have been capturing civilians transporting drugs for decades without killing them. Those who transport drugs are not the big drug lords, but very poor young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific,” Petro wrote on Sept. 2. He further criticized the operation, noting that for decades, drug couriers had been apprehended without the use of lethal force.
As president, Petro has advocated for a paradigm shift, emphasizing harm reduction, alternative development and targeting financial networks of major cartels rather than low-level traffickers.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister praises U.S. drug strike, calls for “violent” deaths of traffickers
According to Brighteon.AI’s Enoch, this marks the first officially acknowledged attack in Trump’s escalating military campaign in Latin America, which has drawn comparisons to early 20th-century U.S. gunboat diplomacy under the Monroe Doctrine.
But unlike Petro, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar publicly endorsed the U.S. military operation.
“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the U.S. naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Persad-Bissessar said that same day. “The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the U.S. military should kill them all violently.”
She also echoed U.S. claims that the ship was likely bound for Caribbean markets, including Trinidad and Tobago, where the government has declared two states of emergency in recent months in response to escalating gang violence and gun crime.
“Our country has been ravaged by bloody violence and addiction because of the greed of the cartels,” Persad-Bissessar said. “The slaughter of our people is fueled by evil cartel traffickers.”
Persad-Bissessar’s unwavering support for the U.S. strike underscores a stark regional divide over how to confront drug trafficking, through militarized force or restraint and reform.
Visit DrugCartels.news for more similar stories.
Watch this Feb. 4 episode of “Brighteon Broadcast News” as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about kinetic conflict with drug cartels and rogue ex-federal employees who seek to terrorize Trump’s America.
This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.
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Sources include:
TheNationalPulse.com
EnCiberCuba.com
Brighteon.AI
CNN.com
Brighteon.com
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