Black-and-white aerial photograph showing a small boat on the water and a large shadow of a US warship. Photo: Matias Delacroix/Associated Press.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement condemning the destruction of a small boat allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia by the US empire. The statement reiterated the call for an end to the attacks, and urged respect for international law.
Colombia’s government has previously condemned the US for carrying out strikes on small boats close to its coast, stating that the military action was “like applying the death penalty in a territory that is not yours.” It also condemned a strike last week in Colombian waters that killed a Colombian fisherman, not a drug smuggler as was claimed.
Colombia reiterated its call to the US regime for dialogue through diplomatic channels to explain these situations and to “adopt comprehensive and effective strategies to jointly continue the fight against drugs in the region, as we have been doing for decades.”
Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.
The… pic.twitter.com/PEaKmakivD
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 23, 2025
Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo told UK mainstream media that the strikes were “disproportionate and outside international law,” noting that those aboard had “no possibility to defend themselves.” He said there was “no process, no judicial order” and urged the US to cooperate instead with Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking.
New US “Strike”
The US empire confirmed that its military forces carried out two targeted attacks against small boats in the Pacific in recent hours. The first reportedly occurred Tuesday night, according to US Secretary of War Peter Hegseth, who confirmed a second one on Wednesday night.
According to the US regime official, an alleged “lethal attack” was carried out against a small boat that he said was operated by an undeclared so-called “terrorist organization.” The incident adds to what several international experts define as extrajudicial killings—and what Colombia has called “murders”—this time in the Eastern Pacific.
In a post on social media, Hegseth explained it was a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO).” He claimed, without providing evidence, that “the now deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.”
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and was carrying narcotics,” Hegseth claimed, refusing to provide any evidence for his fiction. “Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike.” He added that these extrajudicial executions will continue, “day after day.”
“These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities,” he continued. “These DTOs are the ‘Al Qaeda’ of our hemisphere and will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them, until the threat to the American people is extinguished,” he added, now comparing alleged drug runners with the infamous US empire-financed Al Qaeda terrorists.
Blurred videos
The post was accompanied by a video that appears to show a boat catching fire after being struck. The video, as with all those released in this controversial operation, was heavily pixelated, edited, and blurred. This one in particular had an area of the boat and the victims being specifically blurred out, something that raises many questions among experts and public opinion.
The US empire’s announcements of these recent extrajudicial killings lack precise locations, times, names of the victims, and what kind of alleged drugs they were carrying, all adding up to making the operation more obscure and suspicious.
This latest murder is the ninth deadly attack by the US military, which has so far claimed the lives of 35 people from Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad, and possibly from Ecuador. In early September, the US began escalating its attacks on small boats in the Caribbean, in a reinvigorated form of its infamous “war on drugs.”
US Empire Announces New ‘War on Drugs’ Murders, Trump Threatens Colombia’s Petro Again
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly condemned the US deployment in the Caribbean, explaining that it endangers the entire region and is a veiled regime change operation against the sovereign nation.
The US strikes, instead of weakening the Venezuelan government, have instead galvanized toward unity within the country, with opposition politicians and political parties supporting President Nicolás Maduro’s defensive efforts.
On a regional level, it has also pushed governments that were a few months ago critics of the Maduro administration closer to Venezuela, as is the case with Colombia and Brazil. There is growing unease by countries in Latin American and the Caribbean about the repercussions and reach of the US empire’s killings.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/AU
