The household of a Colombian man who was killed in a U.S. strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel within the Caribbean has filed a proper grievance to a number one human rights company, arguing the person’s demise was an extrajudicial killing.
The petition filed by U.S.-based human rights lawyer Daniel Kovalik, on behalf of the household of Alejandro Carranza, says he was killed after the U.S. army bombed his fishing boat on Sept. 15 whereas he was crusing alongside Colombia’s Caribbean coast, and that his demise violated human rights conventions.
The Inter-American Fee on Human Rights obtained the petition on Tuesday, which was first reported by The Guardian. As a result of the U.S. doesn’t acknowledge the existence of a global court docket related to the human rights physique, any suggestions given by the fee wouldn’t be legally binding.
Kovalik mentioned Carranza’s 4 kids and his spouse are looking for compensation, as he was the household’s breadwinner.
Kovalik instructed the Related Press that the household selected the fee due to the obstacles a federal case would face, however the risk is on the desk.
“The U.S. doesn’t topic itself to accountability, so we’re utilizing the avenues we now have earlier than us,” Kovalik mentioned on Wednesday.
“We imagine {that a} resolution in our favour, mixed with public strain, can get us that compensation and likewise can finish the killings within the Caribbean,” he continued.
In November, after the strike that killed Carranza, Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the U.S. authorities of homicide on X.
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“U.S. authorities officers have dedicated a homicide and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug commerce and his each day exercise was fishing,” Petro wrote.
The U.S. army has killed greater than 80 folks since September, after it started conducting strikes on boats the Trump administration says have been transporting medication in direction of the U.S. His administration has not shared any details about the folks killed within the strikes, however insists it’s concentrating on overseas terrorists working drug smuggling vessels.
Carmela Medina, mom of Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian man who allegedly died when the US bombed a ship supposedly carrying medication within the Caribbean, cooks in her kitchen in Santa Marta on October 21, 2025.
(PhoMARCO PERDOMO/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
The army assaults started alongside Venezuela’s Caribbean coast earlier than spreading into the jap Pacific Ocean. On the identical time, the U.S. army has elevated its presence within the area to the most important in generations.
The strike that killed Carranza additionally killed two others. On the time, when probed by reporters for proof of prison exercise on board, Trump instructed the press that baggage of cocaine and fentanyl have been discovered floating within the ocean.
The White Home by no means launched photographs of the scene Trump was referring to.
Kovalik says there have been no medication on Carranza’s boat, and mentioned his shopper didn’t know if different folks have been on the vessel. Kovalik, who can also be representing President Gustavo Petro within the U.S. after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on him, mentioned he met the Carranzas at their residence in northern Colombia.
Petro, a left-leaning chief, has known as the boat assaults “murders” and criticized the U.S. army’s use of drive.
The assaults have confronted rising scrutiny after the Washington Publish reported that Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everyone” on the primary boat focused by the army.
An admiral accepted a follow-up strike — mentioned to have killed two survivors of the preliminary hit. Hegseth has mentioned the admiral “made the fitting name” and he “had full authority to do” so, the AP reported.
Carranza’s lawyer additionally says the household doesn’t have entry to the sources vital to acquire reparations in Colombia, they usually have obtained demise threats from right-wing paramilitary teams within the nation for denouncing the demise of their beloved one.
— With recordsdata from the Related Press
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