Family of missing Colombian seek answers after US strike on alleged drug boat

Lisbeth Perez looks fearful as she looks out over the postcard-perfect fishing cove of Taganga, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, remembering the last time she spoke to her uncle in September.

“He was a kind man, a good person, a friend. Good father, uncle-son. He was a cheerful person. He loved his job and fishing.”

Alejandro Carranza said goodbye to his family early on Sept. 14 before heading to the boat as usual, his cousin Audenis Manjarrez told state media. He said he left La Guajira, a region in neighboring Venezuela.

The next day, US President Donald Trump announced that the US strike in international waters had targeted a ship originating from Venezuela and that three people he described as “extremely violent drug cartels and narco-terrorists” had been killed.

Ms. Perez has not seen her uncle since. His five children miss their father, she said, and the family is still anxiously awaiting answers, not knowing whether he was even on the boat damaged during the strike.

“The truth is we don't know it was him, we don't have any evidence that it was him other than what we saw on the news.”

In September, the US began targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and then expanded the operation to the Pacific. The US says at least 21 strikes have killed 83 people so far.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the campaign is aimed at driving “narco-terrorists out of our hemisphere” and protecting the US from “the drugs that are killing our people.”

The Trump administration justifies them as a necessary self-defense measure aimed at saving American lives by stopping the flow of drugs into the United States.

However, the strikes have drawn condemnation from countries in the region and concerns that they violate international law.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the strikes, saying there were Colombians on board the ship hit on Sept. 15 and later saying Mr. Carranza was among the dead.

Responding to his first statement about the murder of Colombian citizens, the White House said it looked forward to President Petro “publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement.”

Trump also accused Petro of encouraging drug production and threatened to cut off US aid to Colombia.

Mr Carranza comes from a huge family, living with about 20 relatives in a small house just off a dirt road in the fishing village of Guira.

Earlier this month Peter supposed that he wanted to help his daughter attend university and so accepted payment from a drug dealer to transport drugs to the island when his boat was attacked.

“But was it fish or cocaine [he was transporting]”He was not sentenced to death,” Petro said. He accused the US of “murder” and has since said he ordered Colombian public security forces to suspend intelligence sharing with the US until the strikes end. His defense secretary later said the president had given “clear instructions to maintain, as has been done, a continuous flow of information with international counter-narcotics agencies.”

Mr Carranza has a criminal record for stealing guns from police nine years ago, but his family denies (and says it hurts them) characterizations of him as a drug dealer.

“What the President of the United States is doing is wrong. He has to prove whether they are right or wrong.” [trafficking]”, says Lisbeth.

She says that while Trump may want to address issues that affect his “turf,” that “doesn't mean he should resort to these methods… of taking someone's life.”

An American lawyer working for members of the Carranza family, Daniel Kovalik, who also works for President Petro, says Carranza's wife and eldest daughter recognized his boat from a video of the strike released in the United States.

He intends to sue the US government on behalf of the family. International law states that the military cannot kill civilians unless they pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are engaged in criminal activity.

“Even if you claim that the people you kill are drug dealers, you don't have the right to just engage in extrajudicial killings,” Mr. Kovalik said.

“These are tiny little boats… If you really think they did something wrong, these people should be arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced.”

“And by the way, none of them will be sentenced to death – this is not a serious crime.”

The Trump administration has told Congress it believes the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels in the region.

In doing so, they appear to cite wartime powers, such as killing enemy combatants even if they do not pose an immediate violent threat, to justify their strikes.

President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US is “under threat” from “terrorist organizations” and said drugs are killing thousands of Americans.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that seizures of cocaine, the main drug sold and produced in South America, increased approximately 18% in 2024 compared to the previous year.

But the leading cause of drug deaths in the United States is fentanyl, which is produced and shipped into the United States from Mexico.

Mr. Kowalik doesn't buy the US self-defense argument, saying “these boats never attacked the United States.”

Back in Taganga, the strikes are raising concerns among fishermen like 81-year-old Juan Assis Tejeda, whose skin is tanned and leathery from 70 years of fishing in these waters under the scorching Caribbean sun – just like his grandfather and father before him.

He regularly fishes close to the Venezuelan border, just off the coast.

He describes how, while fishing, he would sometimes see drones flying overhead that would “hover silently, come back again, and disappear.”

Although he is just fishing, he is now frightened by the ongoing strikes.

“At any moment they might see us and think we’re doing the same thing. Because sometimes we also go 60 miles or so out to sea in search of tuna.”

He says some fishermen are involved in drug trafficking because of poverty. He says that he was once offered money himself, but he refused.

He said he would rather stick to the little money he earns and live “peacefully” than take the risks of transporting drugs.

Most people in the region don't believe it's not just about small ships allegedly carrying drugs, but that the US also wants to put military pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down from power – or on his allies, such as the military, to topple him.

The US accuses Maduro of leading a criminal human trafficking organization it calls the Cartel de los Soles, which Maduro vehemently denies. The US State Department intends to designate the group as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday.

This has increased speculation over whether the US will strike targets inside Venezuela itself.

Trump said the U.S. “may be having some discussions with Maduro,” and Maduro responded that he was willing to talk “face to face.”

As the United States considers its next move, sleepy fishing villages dotting the Caribbean coast are wondering what's on the horizon: diplomacy or war.