Colombian Survivor of US Attack at Sea Released From Hospital, No Connection With Drug Trafficking Found

Colombian Jonathan Obando Pérez, one of the two survivors of the bombing of a boat carried out by US military forces in the Caribbean Sea on October 16, has been released without charges after no link between Obando and drug trafficking could be found.

The Attorney General’s Office of Colombia announced that in the investigation of Obando, no evidentiary or testimonial material has been found “to date” that could implicate him in any crimes within Colombia or in international waters.

According to the attorney general, proving that Obando is “a criminal,” as the US authorities claim, is unlikely. On October 28, Obando was discharged from the Kennedy Hospital in Bogotá, where he covered his medical expenses out of his own pocket. The Attorney General’s Office determined that he had no criminal record, and his name does not appear in any investigations in connection with any criminal organizations.

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Obando was repatriated to Colombia by US authorities on drug trafficking charges, prompting Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti to state that Obando would be prosecuted for drug offenses. However, the Attorney General’s Office dismissed this accusation. The Colombian arrived in his country with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, and on a ventilator after surviving one of Washington’s extrajudicial attacks.

In the same attack there was another survivor, Andrés Fernando Tufiño, an Ecuadorian citizen, who had also been repatriated to his country. An investigation was opened against him in Ecuador, but he was similarly released, on October 16, after the Attorney General’s Office of Ecuador found no evidence connecting him to drug trafficking.

This situation could be considered at evidence that, as part of its war against Venezuela, the United States is committing extrajudicial murders of innocent civilians in international waters under the guise of combating drug trafficking,

(LaIguana.TV) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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