Colombia’s Petro Urges IDs of Caribbean Bodies to Confirm Possible US Bombing Victims

Written on 12/08/2025
Josep Freixes
Petro requested that the bodies found on Colombian beaches be identified as victims of U.S. bombings of drug smuggling boats. Credit: Andrea Puentes / Presidency of Colombia.

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, asked the National Institute of Forensic Medicine to establish the identity of the people who were found dead this weekend on the Caribbean coast, on the beaches of the La Guajira region, where the current had carried them, in case they could be victims of U.S. bombings of alleged drug-running boats.

Petro also asked to coordinate the investigation with Venezuela’s Prosecutor’s Office, since some of the bodies could be related to people who disappeared on the other side of the border.

In recent months, a series of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and the Pacific — aimed at what are described as alleged “drug-running boats” — have left more than 80 dead. For many communities and authorities in Colombia, these attacks are not only part of an anti-drug strategy, but could also entail serious violations of fundamental rights.

Colombia’s Petro urges IDs of Caribbean bodies to confirm possible US bombing victims

The bodies surfaced this weekend on beaches along the Caribbean coast of La Guajira, carried to shore by ocean currents. Neighbors and residents of fishing villages recounted the discovery with anguish: Unidentified corpses that appeared floating or partially submerged. In response, local authorities confirmed the recovery of the bodies but admitted they had no clarity about their identities or the causes of death.

President Petro asked the Institute of Legal Medicine to identify the deceased and urged coordination with Venezuela, given the geographic proximity and the history of migration between the two countries. In his message on social media, Petro warned that they could be victims of bombings in the Caribbean Sea and did not rule out the possibility that their deaths were linked to recent military operations.

“These bodies have appeared floating in the sea of La Guajira. I am asking Legal Medicine to establish their identities and coordinate with the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office. They may have died in a bombing at sea.”

In another post, the president stated that “those who die from missiles are poor fishermen, some of whom, out of necessity, make short cocaine runs for the narcos.” However, he drew attention to the treatment given to other individuals who allegedly have ties to drug traffickers. “The ones who get pardoned are former presidents with strong links to narcoterrorism in Honduras and Colombia,” he denounced, referreing to the freeing of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez last week, after Donald Trump pardoned him.

For this reason, he said that fishermen or local residents may travel with a few kilos of alkaloids, but the others, the ones who are pardoned, travel “with hundreds of tons.” “The U.S. is choosing the wrong allies. Its allies cannot be the narcos,” he concluded.

Alongside the presidential statement, a video circulated that was released by the state public media outlet documenting how the bodies reached the coast. In that audiovisual report, a journalist suggests the deaths could be a direct result of explosions recorded on the high seas, leading some to label these events as possible extrajudicial executions.

Context of bombings and unidentified victims

Petro’s request comes after more than three months of U.S. bombings in Caribbean waters — and also in the Pacific — against vessels suspected of drug trafficking. Many of these operations have been the subject of strong criticism from Colombia. The president has denounced that in several cases the attacks may have struck civilian individuals, particularly humble fishermen, who have disappeared without a trace.

One of the most emblematic cases is that of a fisherman whom Petro referred to as a civilian victim after a bombing in September. Complaints from family members, accompanied by reports from national media outlets, suggest that the vessel had stopped due to mechanical failures when it was attacked. For the family and for the Colombian government, this incident cannot be reduced to a misidentification: They believe it was an indiscriminate attack against vulnerable residents.

International organizations and human rights advocates have been warning about the risk that these bombings could amount to war crimes or extrajudicial executions, especially when there is no public evidence linking the victims to drug-trafficking activities. In that sense, the appearance of unidentified bodies on Colombia’s coasts heightens concern and demands a response not only from the government, but also from the international community.