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3 more killed in 7th US boat-strike
(Trinidad Express) The US has confirmed a seventh strike in the southern Caribbean, killing three more people it claims were “narco-terrorists”, bringing the total death toll of the US military’s lethal boat strikes since September to 32.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted on his X account Sunday that on Friday, under the direction of US President Donald Trump, the Department of War conducted the strike on a vessel it claims is associated with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Colombian far-left guerrilla insurgency group.
Hegseth claimed the vessel was known by US intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. The strike, he said, was conducted in international waters.
He compared the cartel to the militant terrorist organisation Al Qaeda, which he claimed uses violence, murder, and terrorism to impose its will, threatening the US’ national security.
“The United States military will treat these organisations like the terrorists they are — they will be hunted and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”
Hegseth’s announcement comes shortly after Trump referred to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as an illegal drug leader and said that the US would be cutting its funding to that country.
He claimed that Petro, who has publicly voiced his dissent for the US’ boat strikes in the Caribbean, was encouraging massive production of drugs in fields “all over Colombia.”
“It has become the biggest business in Colombia by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long-term rip-off of America,” Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform.
Trump said that as of Sunday, payments or subsidies would no longer be sent to Colombia, though he offered no further details on what these payments entailed.
“The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc. Petro, a low-rated and very unpopular leader with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him — and it won’t be done nicely,” Trump wrote.
In a tweet on Saturday night, Petro referenced a Colombian media report claiming that the US had killed an innocent man in a previous boat strike.
An RTVC report published on Saturday quotes the relative of 40-year-old fisherman Alejandro Carranza, who she says is one of more than 30 people killed in US boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea thus far.
Carranza’s cousin, Autenis Manjarres, identified the vessel depicted in a September 15 strike confirmed by the US, which killed three. She said that family members had seen the footage and believed the vessel was Carranza’s, and that it was in distress at the time of the strike.
“We are the descendants of fishing families, and well, he was there because he was a curious person, and he was there with the engines. They had broken down, and it’s just not fair that they were bombed like that. He was an innocent man who just went out to earn daily bread, so what we’re living through isn’t fair,” she said in the report.
Of the report, Petro tweeted, “The USA has invaded national territory with a missile fired to kill a humble fisherman and has destroyed his family, his children… The USA offended the national territory of Colombia and killed an honest, hardworking Colombian.”
On Saturday, Trump confirmed that a large drug-carrying submarine had been destroyed by the US military as part of its efforts to curb drug trafficking in the region, killing at least two.
Two deemed by Trump as “narco-terrorists” survived the US strike — the first known survivors of lethal operations carried out by the US in the Caribbean Sea since September 2. Two others on board did not.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that the vessel was navigating toward the US along a well-known drug trafficking route. US intelligence, he said, confirmed that the vessel was loaded with fentanyl and other illegal narcotics.
Two survivors, he said, were being returned to their two countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution.
“At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore… No US forces were harmed in this strike. Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narco-terrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote.
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- boat strikes, Caribbean Sea, Colombia, Department of War, narco-terrorists, US boat-strike, US military
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Weekend Cartoon
The self appointed World’s Policeman is taking care of business-killing
people nearby the Venezuelan coast. Guyanese fishermen should be
jittery out fishing in the ocean nearby. They may be next “mistaken” as
drug carrying vessels. Satellite and other means are used to track all
vessels nearby, legally fishing or not. Mistakes can be made, as we are
humans.