U.S. strike

Colombia was a top U.S. ally in Latin America until the Trump administration began deadly strikes in international waters. Now, one family wants justice.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered security forces to stop sharing intelligence with the United States until it stops striking suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. military has killed four people in a strike against a boat that was allegedly carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The announcement on Wednesday comes as the Trump administration continues its divisive campaign against drug cartels in the waters off South America.

The Trump administration asserted without providing any evidence that the boats were carrying illegal drugs. Fourteen boats that the administration alleged were being operated by drug traffickers have been struck, killing 43 people.

The strikes were launched Monday and announced on social media Tuesday. This is the first time multiple strikes have been announced in a single day. They mark a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September and had been spaced weeks apart.

In less than two months, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say the U.S. military has killed at least 37 people in strikes against drug-smuggling vessels off the coast of South America.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. military has conducted its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel. The Tuesday night strike occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The seven previous strikes all targeted vessels in the Caribbean.

The military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs is stepping down, three U.S. officials said Thursday.

The United States struck another small boat accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

Democrats and at least one Republican are trying to counter the administration's extraordinary assertion of presidential war power to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

The country finds itself entangled in the net of a geopolitical face-off between the United States and Venezuela. Only about seven miles separate Trinidad and Venezuela at their closest point. Dozens of fishermen worry that their boat could be mistaken for a drug-smuggling vessel.

It's the fourth deadly strike in the Caribbean and the latest since revelations that President Donald Trump told lawmakers he was treating drug traffickers as unlawful combatants and military force was required to combat them.