Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Wednesday claimed that the drug-laden vessel struck by the U.S. military in Caribbean international waters last week was “Colombian with Colombian citizens on board,” prompting the White House to refute his claims.
The White House urged Petro to publicly retract his “baseless and reprehensible” statement — eliciting another rant from the far-left president. Petro has not retracted his statements at press time.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that U.S. military forces carried out a new lethal strike against a U.S.-bound vessel transporting “substantial amounts of narcotics” near Venezuelan international waters, killing four men. The strike was part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to combat Latin American drug cartels in Caribbean international waters and curb the flow of drugs entering the United States. President Trump detailed in a Truth Social post that the boat was loaded with enough drugs to kill “25 to 50 thousand people.”
Petro, an outspoken advocate for the legalization of cocaine, has repeatedly condemned the United States’ drug-fighting military strikes and has accused President Trump of “murder.” Petro repeated his “murder” accusations during his unhinged speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month and further claimed, without evidence, that the struck drug vessels were instead transporting “poor migrants” in the Caribbean. Petro repeated that unsubstantiated claim on Friday after footage of the latest struck vessel was publicly revealed.
On Wednesday, Petro claimed in a social media post that there were “indications” that the latest struck drug-vessel was “Colombian with Colombian citizens inside.”
“I hope their families come forward and report it,” Petro wrote. “There is no war against smuggling; there is a war for oil, and it must be stopped by the world. The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Petro published the message as a quote to a post published by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announcing that he, alongside Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), would be forcing a vote to block President Trump’s use of U.S. armed forces to conduct drug-fighting operations in Caribbean waters. The legislation was voted down on Wednesday evening, with 48 yays against 51 nays.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the White House rebuffed Petro’s claims in remarks issued to the outlet by an unspecified White House official.
“The United States looks forward to President Petro publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement so that we can return to a productive dialogue on building a strong, prosperous future for the people of the United States and Colombia,” the White House official reportedly told Reuters.
Colombia is the world’s top cocaine producer. For decades, Colombian authorities have maintained a lengthy fight to combat drug trafficking and eradicate drug production in their territory. Unlike past administrations, Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever, enacted lenient drug fighting policies, shifting efforts towards targeting drug trafficking networks and drug lords who benefit from overseas sales over cracking down on coca leaf production, cocaine’s main ingredient.
In March, the Colombian government formally requested that the United Nations remove coca leaves from its list of harmful substances. The leaves are harvested and then undergo a chemical process that turns them into a paste, which is then refined into cocaine.
In June, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its latest world drug report, which revealed that cocaine production dramatically skyrocketed around the world during 2023. UNODC explained that the dramatic surge is due to an increase in the size of illicit coca bush cultivation areas in Colombia. The agency registered a 50-percent increase in coca bush in the country during 2023 when compared to 2022, the first year of Petro’s four-year term.
President Trump submitted a determination to Congress in September designating Colombia and other countries as having failed demonstrably to adhere to obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.
“In Colombia, coca cultivation and cocaine production have surged to all-time records under President Gustavo Petro, and his failed attempts to seek accommodations with narco-terrorist groups only exacerbated the crisis,” the determination read. “Under President Petro’s leadership, coca cultivation and cocaine production have reached record highs while Colombia’s government failed to meet even its own vastly reduced coca eradication goals, undermining years of mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries against narco-terrorists.”
The determination appears to have infuriated Gustavo Petro, who proclaimed himself a “decertified” president during his U.N. General Assembly speech and accused Trump of not having the “human, divine, or mental,” right to issue the determination against Colombia.
Petro has been publicly accused by former members of his administration of suffering from drug addiction. Between April and May, former Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva released two explosive letters accusing Petro of suffering from drug addiction and urged him to step down from the presidency. Leyva recounted several “scandalous situations” allegedly caused by Petro with other heads of state that, he claimed, serve as evidence for his accusations.
The letters prompted a Colombian Congressional commission to launch an inquiry against Petro in June to investigate the drug addiction claims. In September, Leyva reportedly submitted a 33-page document to the Colombian Congress certifying his accusations and urging Petro to take medical and toxicology tests. According to Noticias RCN, Leyva attached a list containing 82 of Petro’s alleged “irregular behavior” incidents.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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