Colombian President Gustavo Petro shared footage on December 8, 2025 showing two bodies that washed up on a beach in La Guajira, a region on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, calling on forensic authorities and Venezuelan officials to identify them. Due to the sensitive nature of the content, the footage is not included in this article.
The bodies were found floating in the sea on Thursday, December 5, the same day the US military conducted its 22nd strike on a suspected drug-running vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people.
The Incident
President Petro wrote on X that the bodies may have been victims of an airstrike at sea, though he did not explicitly name the United States in his post. A police spokesperson in La Guajira told AFP that the two bodies were discovered Thursday on a beach used by local fishermen, though the cause of death remains unknown.
The US military’s December 5 strike targeted a small boat in the Eastern Pacific, bringing the death toll from maritime strikes since September to at least 86 people.
Political Context
The bodies surfaced amid escalating tensions between Colombia and the United States over Washington’s maritime campaign against alleged drug traffickers. President Trump said on December 3 that any country trafficking drugs into the US—including Colombia—could be “subject to attack.”
At a public event on Sunday, December 8, Petro publicly criticized US military operations and threats in Latin America, saying Washington is applying pressure to force him to “do what they want.”
Petro drew a historical parallel to the 1928 Banana Massacre, when the Colombian army killed hundreds of striking workers of the US-owned United Fruit Company. He later wrote on X:
Those who die from missiles are poor fishermen, some of whom, out of necessity, make short trips carrying cocaine for traffickers. Those who are pardoned are former presidents with strong ties to narcoterrorism in Honduras and Colombia…The US is choosing its allies wrongly. Its allies cannot be the traffickers.
His comment referenced Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving 45 years after being convicted of moving 400 tons of cocaine to the United States.
The Maritime Strike Campaign
US Southern Command announced that the December 4 strike targeted a vessel in international waters “operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization” carrying illicit narcotics along a known trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific.
The operation marked the resumption of strikes after a three-week pause. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the operations as lawful “lethal, kinetic strikes” intended to destroy “narco-boats” and kill “narco-terrorists.”
However, the strikes have drawn growing scrutiny from US lawmakers. The September 2 strike has become a focal point after allegations emerged that two survivors of the initial explosion were later killed by US forces while still in the water—potentially violating laws protecting shipwrecked persons.
Legal and Diplomatic Concerns
Colombia has rejected threats of external aggression that violate its sovereignty. President Petro ceased intelligence cooperation with the US in November and condemned attacks on suspected drug-running boats in which Colombian nationals were killed.
The family of Colombian national Alejandro Carranza Medina, killed in a US strike off Colombia’s coast on September 15, has filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, accusing the Trump administration of carrying out an extrajudicial killing.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned that the use of military force against alleged criminal groups beyond national borders creates “a serious risk of unlawful killings, weak accountability, due-process violations, and diminished civilian oversight.”
Lawmakers have launched bipartisan investigations into the strikes, with legal experts warning that US forces could be exposed to future prosecution for potential violations of international law.
Regional Tensions
The Trump administration has explicitly identified Colombia as at risk of US military action amid Washington’s ongoing campaign against drug trafficking. Similar threats to Venezuela, including the stated goal of removing President Nicolás Maduro from power, have heightened regional tensions.
The US has stepped up its military presence in the Caribbean, reinforcing air and naval bases that can serve as forward projection points. While Washington frames these operations as part of a campaign against drug trafficking, critics warn they blur the line between counter-narcotics efforts and political coercion.
Colombia remains a major producer of cocaine, with networks moving the drug domestically and internationally. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported in October 2024 that Colombia’s coca cultivation rose 10 percent from the previous year, reaching its largest area in over two decades.
