Colombia’s ties to vessels struck by Trump: A missing fisherman, a submarine, and an ELN boat

U.S. President Donald Trump’s offensive in the Caribbean has escalated tensions throughout the region. The U.S. Navy deployment, ordered by the president in August, is officially aimed at Venezuelan drug cartels. So far, the operations have resulted in seven vessels destroyed in extrajudicial strikes, with U.S. authorities providing no evidence beyond videos showing the moments of the bombings. At least 33 people have died in these operations.

The Colombian government of Gustavo Petro suspects that several of the victims were Colombian citizens. The Colombian president, one of the most vocal critics of the military deployment, also reported over the weekend that at least one of the attacks took place “presumably” in Colombian waters.

At least three of the attacked vessels are in some way connected to Colombia. According to Petro, one boat departed from Santa Marta with a fisherman on board in mid-September. One of the two survivors of the bombing of a suspected drug submarine was also Colombian. The last attack targeted a vessel allegedly linked by U.S. authorities to the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla group that denied the claim on Tuesday.

Petro suspects one attack occurred in Colombian waters against a fisherman

On Saturday, the Colombian president reported that one of the vessels attacked by the U.S. in the Caribbean was Colombian, crewed by a “fisherman,” and that the strike presumably occurred in Colombian waters. Petro cited a report from RTVC, the public media system, which interviewed the sailor’s relatives.

“The boat attacked on September 16 was Colombian, one engine was up, indicating damage, and it was turned off. It was presumably in Colombian waters. The person there was a fisherman who has not returned home. Alert the Attorney General’s Office,” Petro wrote in X.

The RTVC report referred to the second boat attacked by the U.S., which actually occurred on September 15. Trump announced the operation in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, claiming that three men had died in the attack in international waters. He described the victims as “narcoterrorists from Venezuela.”

On the same Saturday, Petro declared that U.S. officials “committed murder and violated sovereignty in territorial waters,” stating that the fisherman identified by RTVC as Alejandro Carranza had no connection to drug trafficking. In subsequent posts, the Colombian president has repeatedly emphasized that Carranza was a “humble fisherman.”

“We are awaiting explanations from the U.S. government,” Petro said in one of the social media posts, which came amid yet another diplomatic crisis between Colombia and the United States

The day before, in a lengthy televised address on Friday night, Petro said he had received reports from families in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta who had listed their children as missing — cases that could be related to the U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

Two survivors from a ‘drug-carrying submarine’

On October 18, Trump reported a new attack in the Caribbean, but this time it was not against a boat. “It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” he posted on Truth Social. That same day, the Pentagon released a video of the submarine, which sailed just inches below the surface and was bombed from the air.

The assault had occurred on October 16, according to Reuters. Two people died, and two survived, the first survivors since the U.S. began these operations. The survivors, a Colombian and an Ecuadorian, were captured by the U.S. Navy and later deported.

Petro said on October 18: “We welcomed the Colombian detained in the drug submarine. We are glad he is alive, and he will be prosecuted according to the law.”

The Colombian was identified as Jeison Obando Pérez, 34. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that Pérez “is allegedly a criminal involved in drug trafficking.” Pérez arrived in Colombia in critical condition and was admitted to Kennedy Hospital in southern Bogotá. “He arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, on a ventilator, and was treated,” said Benedetti.

According to the most recent medical report, to which EL PAÍS has had access, “he has a fracture at the base of the skull and eye socket, as well as intracerebral injuries, with no evidence of severity.” Even so, this Monday, “he showed improvement and was withdrawn from ventilator support. He remains under observation and multidisciplinary medical care,” the report states.

The Ecuadorian survivor was identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño. He was released, as the country’s Attorney’s General Office found no evidence to charge him with a crime, according to an Ecuadorian government official cited by Associated Press. AP obtained a government document stating that “there is no evidence or indication that could lead prosecutors or judicial authorities to be certain” of any violation of current laws by Tufiño.

A boat linked to the ELN guerrilla group

On Sunday, amid rising tensions between Petro and Trump, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a position now renamed Secretary of War — announced in a post on X a new military strike in the Caribbean, carried out without judicial or congressional authorization. The target was an alleged drug-running boat that, according to his account, was crewed by members of Colombia’s last active guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

“On October 17, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with the National Liberation Army (ELN), a designated terrorist organization, that was operating in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility,” Hegseth posted on X, without providing details on the alleged connection.

All three occupants on the boat were killed in the bombing, which Hegseth claimed took place in international waters. It was the seventh vessel attacked since early September, when the United States launched its military deployment near Venezuelan waters.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth said in the message on X. He also likened drug trafficking organizations to Islamic terrorists: “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda."

The ELN denied Hegseth’s accusations on Tuesday. “The National Liberation Army does not and will not have any vessel linked to drug trafficking activities, either in the Caribbean or in any other sea, simply because its militants and structures are prohibited from becoming involved in any aspect of this business,” the ELN’s central command said in a statement.

The ELN was founded in 1964 in Colombia. It was inspired by the Cuban Revolution and shaped by a strong religious influence. For years, however, it has also operated in Venezuela, leading many analysts to describe it as a binational guerrilla movement.

Human Rights Watch has denounced the Venezuelan security forces for acting as accomplices of the group, even conducting “joint operations.” Although the ELN had been engaged in peace talks with Petro’s government under his “total peace” policy, the negotiations remain suspended after a fierce guerrilla offensive earlier this year in Colombia’s volatile Catatumbo border region.

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