Washington strikes ship in row with Colombia over drugs

Donald Trump last Sunday accused Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, of being an “illegal drug dealer” and threatened to cut US funding to the country as a Republican senator said the US would soon announce “major tariffs” on the country.

- By Olivia Empson

Soon after, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said that US forces had attacked a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group.

Hegseth, in a post on X, said “three terrorists were killed” in the operation which was conducted in international waters. “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere,” Hegseth said. “The United States military will treat these organisations like the terrorists they are - they will be hunted, and killed.”

In a post on Truth Social just hours earlier, Trump had blamed the leftwing Petro for encouraging the mass production of illegal drugs, saying he “does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the US”.

“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately,” Trump wrote, “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”

The remarks come after Petro said the US “committed a murder” following a strike on an alleged drug boat in Colombian territorial waters in September, adding “we await explanations from the US government”.