The family of Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman who President Gustavo Petro said was one of the civilians killed in US attacks against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, has filed a formal complaint against Washington before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The news was reported by British media Guardian El Pais newspaper confirmed that this represents the first claim before an international organization regarding the military campaign it launched on orders from Donald Trump in September, in which more than 80 people were killed.
The petition document, seen by this newspaper, is supported by Daniel Kovalik, a human rights lawyer and representative of President Petro in many international cases. In the application, he briefly explains the events in which he claims Carranza died: “On September 15, 2025, Alejandro Andrés Carranza Medina’s boat, in which he was sailing through the Caribbean, was bombed by the United States Army, off the coast of Colombia. He died in the bombing. Mr. Carranza was a fisherman and a Colombian citizen.” The man went out to work and did not return home.
The complaint directly names US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as “responsible for ordering the bombing of ships like the Alejandro Carranza Medina and killing all persons on board.” According to the American press, Hegseth gave the order to “kill all” the crew of the suspicious ships, even if their alleged relationship with drug traffickers was not confirmed. The document also notes that Trump “confirmed Secretary Hegseth’s behavior.”
“By carrying out the extrajudicial killing, the United States has violated the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man,” said the petition signed by Carranza’s wife, Catherine Hernandez Bernal. The family accuses the United States of violating the rights to life, equality before the law, recognition of legal personality, fair trial, and due process. According to the document, there is a witness to the murder: the leader of the Hunters’ Association of Santa Marta, who preferred to keep his name secret due to “threats from paramilitaries.”
At the end of October, Petro denounced that the second attack launched by Washington in the Caribbean Sea against a ship (on September 15) occurred against a Colombian fisherman and “supposedly” occurred in national waters. The Colombian president then denounced that the man, whom he identified as Carranza (42 years old), had no connection to drug trafficking. For his part, Trump noted that three “Venezuelan narco-terrorists” who were supposed to be “transporting illegal drugs destined for the United States” were killed in that operation.
The United Nations and several human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have classified the bombings against alleged drug boats as “extrajudicial executions.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that these actions “violate international law.” The military campaign, dubbed the Southern Spear, began with attacks against ships in the Caribbean Sea, which later extended into the Pacific Ocean, the most common route for drug trafficking heading from South America to North America. More than eighty people have died and only two survivors have been identified: a Colombian and an Ecuadorian, who were sailing on an alleged drug submarine when it was attacked on October 18. They were released to their countries, where no crimes were proven against them.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, headquartered in Washington, is an organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) whose mission is to promote and protect human rights on the continent. If the entity finds that one of the 35 member states is responsible for a human rights violation, it issues a report that can include everything from recommendations and reparations to sanctions against those responsible and pressure for legislative changes. If an amicable solution is not reached, cases could be escalated to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, whose rulings have binding effects. The United States is one of the founding countries of the Organization of American States.