
This morning, the headlines were dominated by Colombian President Gustavo Petro Claims One of the raids targeting Venezuelan drug cartel ships involved a Colombian “fisherman.”
ColombiaPresident Gustavo Pietro Washington accused Washington of committing “murder” after the US military struck an alleged drug smuggling ship last month.
Petro said the White House violated the South American country’s sovereignty and killed a Colombian fisherman whom the president identified as Alejandro Carranza. Colombian media reported that Carranza was on a boat that was targeted by US forces on September 15.
US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters
The fisherman, Alejandro Carranza, had no connection to drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing.
The Colombian boat was veering off course and with the signal to break…
-Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 19, 2025
US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters
Hunter Alejandro Carranza had nothing to do with the drug trade and his daily activity was hunting.
The Colombian boat was veering off course and sent a distress signal due to engine failure.
We await clarifications from the American government.
Although this allegation cannot be documented, and occurred over a month ago, the allegation was immediately raised online. No doubt this will be the topic of discussion over the next few days. As was Rush Limbaugh famous Because he said: “It is not the nature of the evidence, but the seriousness of the charge” that matters. Here, there’s literally no evidence, but the “murder” allegation is pretty serious, so here we are. On the basis of facts, this story seems more like a fabricated story of Pavek Morozov, a Soviet icon who turned his parents into the NKVD due to disloyalty to the party, or “Comrade Ogilvy“The Making of Winston Smith in George Orwell’s Novel”1984“.
I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this claim was made by an anti-American man like Nicolas Maduro. If you remember, he had to be humiliated to take back the trash he had dumped in the United States; SEE PRICELESS: Trump’s power move causes Colombia to surrender to deportation flights – He has a perfect response – RedState. The State Department also revoked his visa after a public diatribe in which he encouraged members of the US military to mutiny. See favo. Colombian President’s Visa Revoked After Calling on US Troops to Revolt – RedState.
Although it’s not outside the realm of logic that our dear, late Alejandro was a “fisherman,” an extensive AP investigation has found that it’s quite common for Venezuela’s resident fishermen to be https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/honorable-mention/2025/a p-team-ventures-deep-into-venezuelas-drug-fishing-frontier-after-us-strikes/ “They are driven to drug trafficking by economic desperation.” It’s hard to believe that things are better across the border in Colombia. So, even if the story is true and Alejandro is no longer with us, it does not mean that he was not on a boat used by drug cartels.
Trinidad got into the game on Thursday, when some people claimed, without providing evidence, that locals were on a boat attacked by the United States; See US Military Kills Venezuelan Fisherman in Suspected Drug Boat Attack, His Family Says – New York Times. Even if this is true, which is doubtful, it does not mean that these people were drug dealers. Just because they live on an island, that doesn’t mean they don’t know that the United States routinely pays large sums of money for collateral deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The ultimate goal is to create public pressure on Trump to stop his pressure on Venezuela and the cartels. Colombia is not just an innocent bystander. It is a much more narco-state than Venezuela; It’s the world Biggest producer of cocaine, and is located directly on the main routes that transport cocaine from producers number two (Peru) and number three (Bolivia) to the United States.
Trump’s response to this claim was to shut down Uncle Sugar’s cash pipeline to Colombia. See Trump Ignores Colombia Aid, Gustavo Petro Brands ‘Drug Lord’ – Next Step ‘Won’t Go Well’ – RedState. He also threatened to take action against the Colombian cocaine industry.
The other issue the left is trying to manipulate is based on being stupid. I covered it on Saturday in US forces destroy drug-running submarine and take first drug war prisoners – RedState. The claim is that since the administration brought back two drug smugglers from the sunken submarine and did not arrest or detain them, it means something suspicious is going on. Glenn Greenwald is the best example.
The US government will return two surviving crew members of a boat that exploded in international waters on Thursday: one to Colombia and the other to Ecuador.
This is very strange if the US was actually in an “armed conflict” and these were actual drug traffickers: https://t.co/g7OkuXtIWq
– Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 18, 2025
However, if Greenwald and his mother knew about it Read the article As he points that out, he will have his answer.
However, the decision to transfer survivors was consistent with the Coast Guard’s practice of returning or extraditing to friendly countries persons intercepted outside the United States on suspicion of being human traffickers.
The men who were captured are low-level. Otherwise they wouldn’t be on a jury submarine transporting cocaine or fentanyl through an area where the US military is cracking down on anything linked to drug trafficking. They undoubtedly leaked whatever information they had during the two days the Navy obtained it. The cost of prosecuting and imprisoning them is far from the deterrent value or loss incurred by the cartels. To prosecute them, you have to prove that there were drugs on the sunken boat. You will also have to reveal intelligence that lets you know that they were carrying drugs. The best way, from a financial, operational and legal standpoint, is to land them on shore.
But the memo appears to have gone out on the TDS tree to fit the same story.
If this boat had been full of known “narco-terrorists” in the war against America, the Trump administration would have imprisoned and prosecuted the survivors.
The fact that they are not suggests that the survivors were not narco-terrorists
Which in turn indicates that the administration is killing people https://t.co/2CzkaAAXJI
– John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) October 18, 2025
In general, drug terrorists are not repatriated unless they are not who Trump and Hegseth say they are. We seem to be randomly killing people on boats. https://t.co/q9UnUODd3E
– Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) October 18, 2025
So we either let the arrested cartel members go free or we bomb innocent people. Which one is it @JDVance? https://t.co/LChTUEd89K
– Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) October 18, 2025
It is as if the Trump administration is trying to avoid judicial review of the legality of its deadly attacks on suspected drug traffickers https://t.co/MToft19wXj
– Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) October 18, 2025
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin didn’t care to read beyond the headline.
The capture of the prisoners presents a major new set of legal and political problems for the Trump administration in the escalating US military campaign in the Caribbean. @erikschmidt new https://t.co/sdStAbxBOQ
– Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 18, 2025
So here are the two lines of attack to watch: the “harmless hunter” story and the “suspicious actions by the military” story.
I have no doubt that if this campaign continues long enough, someone we did not target will be killed. But Napoleon said something about making omelettes. We need to keep our eyes on the strategic goal, which I believe is to intercept the cocaine pipeline, and not deviate from it.
As far as the “shady business” angle is concerned. Again, from what we saw last week (Did he jump…or was he pushed? The US commander in chief in Latin America suddenly retired – Red State), there are senior military officials and senior officials who were not involved in stopping the drugs or sending Nicolas Maduro out of Super Max. They either don’t like Trump and don’t want to be part of any success, or they are bureaucratic, risk-averse and more concerned with maintaining the status quo than with revolutionary transformation. There will be more such stories as this campaign progresses, especially if we see kinetic operations on the ground in Venezuela or Colombia; See President Trump Unleashes CIA on Venezuela and Suggests Ground Operations Very Likely – RedState. Just because something isn’t “the way we’ve always done it,” doesn’t mean it’s illegal, improper, immoral, or unethical. It just means it’s new.