Colombia's Petro calls for criminal investigation against Trump over Caribbean strikes

BOGOTÁ — Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday called for criminal proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials involved in this month’s deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean, saying the action warrants accountability even at the highest levels. The remarks came as Petro addressed the United Nations General Assembly and aligned with his broader critique of U.S. policy in the region.

Petro said that if the boats were carrying drugs, the passengers were not necessarily drug traffickers, arguing that many were poor young people from Latin America with few options. He asserted that criminal proceedings should be opened against the officials involved, including the person who gave the order, “President Trump,” and he disputed U.S. statements that the passengers aboard the vessels were members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. The Colombian leader used the forum to condemn what he described as criminalization of poverty and migration by the United States.

In parallel, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that his government is preparing a series of constitutional decrees to defend the country’s sovereignty in the event of what he characterized as an attack by U.S. forces. The announcements underscore growing regional tension as Petro restarts Colombia’s diplomatic line with Venezuela after years of strain.

Details of the strikes remain contested and partly unclear. The first attack, on Sept. 2, killed 11 people, according to the Trump administration. U.S. officials have said the boats and another vessel targeted on Sept. 16 had set out to sea from Venezuela, and that three people died in the second attack. A third strike, conducted Friday, killed three more people. The White House has framed the operations as a necessary escalation to disrupt drug trafficking, but U.S. authorities have not fully explained how the ships’ cargo or the passengers’ affiliations were assessed.

U.S. national security officials told members of Congress that the first boat was fired upon multiple times after it changed course and appeared headed back toward shore, a claim cited by proponents of the strikes as justification for the action. Petro, who has previously criticized U.S. policy toward Venezuela, cited Trump’s remarks at the UNGA, asking whether it was really necessary to bomb unarmed, poor young people in the Caribbean and accusing the administration of using drug trafficking as a pretext for military action.

Petro, who is Colombia’s first leftist president, had rekindled diplomatic relations with Venezuela after taking office in 2022, a shift that has helped shape the regional dynamics surrounding the Caribbean operations.

The episodes have raised questions about regional stability, humanitarian impact, and the appropriateness of unilateral U.S. military actions in the Western Hemisphere. While Colombia’s president has openly criticized the strikes and called for legal accountability, U.S. officials have continued to defend the operations as part of a broader effort to stem drug trafficking, framing the measures as targeted and time-bound while avoiding a broader proclamation about the entire region.

As the fallout from the strikes and the political reactions continue, observers say the incident highlights the fragility of diplomatic ties in a volatile region and the potential for spillover into broader regional politics amid competing narratives about sovereignty, crime, and trafficking networks.