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Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday there were “indications” that US forces had attacked the last small boat near the coast. Venezuela Was carrying Colombian citizens.
“A new front has opened in the war: The Caribbean,”Petro posted on social platform
He gave no explanation as to what those signals were. “I hope their families come forward and report this,” he said.
Neither Petro’s office nor Colombia’s Defense Ministry immediately responded to requests for additional information.
The US government has also not identified who was on board the boat, nor has it identified the three boats that were initially attacked.
Last Friday, the US Secretary of Defense pete hegseth They announced an attack on a small boat which they accused of carrying drugs into Venezuelan waters. He said four people were killed in the attack but gave no details about who they were or what group they belonged to.
The first military strike was carried out on September 2, against what the Trump administration described as a drug-carrying speedboat, killing 11 people. us President donald trump Claims were made that the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in Venezuelan prisons and was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the US earlier this year.
Then, on September 15, Trump announced that the US military had attacked a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela. Three people on board the ship also died in that attack.
On September 19, Trump said in a social media posting that another attack was conducted against a ship “affiliated with a designated terrorist organization that trafficks drugs in USSOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility” and three people were killed.
Trump has told US lawmakers that he is treating drug traffickers as illegal combatants and that military force is needed to deal with them.
Earlier on Wednesday, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino told military leaders that while the US government knows the drug trafficking allegations used to support recent actions in the Caribbean are false, its real intention is to “force regime change” in the South American country. He said the Venezuelan government does not view the deployment of US warships as merely a “propaganda-like action” and warned the population of a possible escalation.
“I want to warn the population: we have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the American empire acts is not normal,” Padrino said during the televised gathering. “It is anti-political, anti-human, anti-war, crude and obscene.”
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