The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro announced this Monday that his lawyer assumed the legal defense of the family of Alejandro Carranza a fisherman from the city of Santa Marta “victim of American murder” in one of the attacks of Washington against boats that supposedly transported drugs in the Caribbean Sea.
“My lawyer Dan Kovalik has begun the judicial defense of the Carranza family, victims of the American murder of Alejandro Carranzathe Samarian fisherman killed by a missile fired at his boat in the Caribbean and poor solidarity”wrote Petro in X.
The president added that “the legal agency of the State, whose priority must be the defense of the victims of violence in Colombia“must convene a commission of Colombian lawyers to investigate crimes in the Caribbean Sea.”.
In another publication, he reiterated his accusation against the United States of carrying out “a systematic murder, which is a crime against humanity,” in the 20 attacks in the Caribbean and the Pacific announced by the White House since August, under the pretext of combating the drug traffickingin which more than 80 people have died.
“I believe that even if traveling by canoe as in the past, the peoples of the Caribbean must meet by area in assembly to unite and act”he pointed out.
The Colombian Government identified Carranza, a “poor” fisherman from the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, as one of the victims of the US bombing on September 16.
In recent months, Petro has raised the tone against his American counterpart, Donald Trumpdue to differences in immigration policy, the fight against drugs and Washington’s support for Israel.
Tensions escalated at the end of September, when the US decided to revoke Petro’s visa and removed Colombia – considered the world’s largest producer of cocaine – from the list of countries that cooperated in the fight against drug trafficking in the last year.
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The Trump Administration also included the Colombian president and several of his associates on the list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)known as ‘Clinton List’, for its alleged links to drug trafficking.