Petro urges criminal proceedings against Trump over Caribbean strikes at U.N. General Assembly

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that former U.S. President Donald Trump should face criminal proceedings over a trio of deadly strikes on boats suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean. He condemned the attacks as disproportionate and insisted the passengers were not members of a criminal gang, but poor young people from Latin America who had “no other option.”

In remarks to the world body, Petro demanded that “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.” He said the passengers killed in the strikes were not members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, as the Trump administration had asserted after the first attack, and criticized the operations as criminalizing poverty and migration. In an interview with the BBC, he described the strikes as an “act of tyranny” and questioned the U.S. methods, asking, “Why launch a missile if you could simply stop the boat and arrest the crew.” “We have a long history of collaborating with American agencies and other agencies of carrying out maritime seizures of cocaine. No one has ever died before. There is no need to kill anyone.”

Petro’s UN remarks came as Colombia publicly condemned a series of deadly strikes on Caribbean-bound boats, insisting the passengers were poor young men rather than drug traffickers. The remarks also echoed broader regional tensions over Washington’s counter-narcotics approach, which has faced scrutiny for civilian casualties, questions about proportionality, and the handling of evidence linking passengers to criminal groups.

Three vessels have been involved in the episode. The first strike, on September 2, killed 11 people, according to U.S. officials. Officials said that vessel and a second one, targeted on September 16, had departed from Venezuela. A third boat was struck on Friday, leaving three more dead. The Trump administration has defended the escalation as essential to combat drug smuggling into the United States but has not explained how the cargo or the passengers were evaluated for criminal linkage. National security officials later told Congress that the first vessel was fired on after it changed course and appeared to head back toward shore, a claim that Petro has rejected as inconsistent with the harm inflicted on unarmed civilians.

Petro’s remarks were delivered as a direct response to Trump’s recent public remarks and as U.S. officials sought to justify the strikes as counter-narcotics actions. He argued that the episodes reveal a pattern of policy that “criminalizes poverty, criminalizes migration, and criminalizes people who are seeking a better life.” The Colombian president has long framed his foreign-policy stance around regional sovereignty and a pushback against perceived U.S. overreach, even as Colombia remains closely aligned with Washington on anti-drug efforts.

The reaction within the United States has been mixed. Some lawmakers have questioned the legality and the proportionality of the strikes, with several Democrats signaling that the episodes could amount to extrajudicial actions. The United Nations has described the incidents as extrajudicial executions in some commentary, though officials have not issued a formal legal finding. The episodes have intensified a debate over state violence at sea, the boundaries of presidential authority, and the accountability processes for actions conducted in international waters.

Analysts note that Petro’s opposition to the strikes aligns with his broader effort to position Colombia as a regional advocate for humanitarian standards and civilian protection, even as his government cooperates with U.S. anti-drug initiatives. The flare-up also underscores a delicate moment in U.S.-Colombia relations: Petro is the country’s first left-wing president since the 1990s and, since taking office in 2022, he has sought to recalibrate regional partnerships while keeping critical security support from Washington.

The broader geopolitical backdrop includes Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro accusing Washington of using drug allegations as a pretext for a broader effort to topple his government, a charge that has colored regional diplomacy in recent weeks. Washington, meanwhile, has intensified its maritime presence in the southern Caribbean, deploying additional warships and thousands of Marines and sailors as part of an expanded counter-narcotics mission. The public disagreement between Petro and Trump’s administration illustrates the high-stakes tension around maritime enforcement, sovereignty, and civilian risk in an area critical to both sides’ security and economic interests.

As the UN continues to host discussions on global security and humanitarian protection, Petro’s call for accountability adds a new chapter to the ongoing debate about how best to curb drug trafficking while safeguarding civilian lives. The World body’s members may weigh calls for independent assessments of the strikes, greater transparency about the evidence linking passengers to criminal networks, and clarifications of the legal frameworks governing force used in international waters. The coming days are likely to see renewed diplomacy aimed at de-escalation, with regional allies watching closely how Washington and Bogotá respond to the assertions of sovereignty, human rights, and accountability voiced from the UN podium.