credit, BBC/Paulo Cuba
-
- author, Jose Carlos Cueto
- scroll, BBC News Mundo correspondent in Colombia
- author, Ion Wells
- scroll, BBC News South America correspondent
The family of Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian who was allegedly killed during a US attack on a ship in the Caribbean, has filed a complaint with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), in Washington, D.C. (USA).
The British newspaper The Guardian published the information, which was confirmed by BBC News Mundo (BBC Spanish service) through lawyer and activist Daniel Kovalik, the legal representative of the family and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a critic of the policies of his American colleague Donald Trump.
The complaint was filed: “On September 15, 2025, the US military bombed the boat of Alejandro Carranza Medina (…) which was sailing in the Caribbean from the coast of Colombia. Carranza died during the bombing.”
At least 83 people have died since September in attacks ordered by the Trump administration against ships in the Caribbean and South Pacific allegedly loaded with drugs, as part of a campaign against drug trafficking.
The US government justifies the military campaign as necessary to save American lives by preventing drugs from entering the country.
But experts say the attacks may have violated international law.
For weeks, the Colombian president and Carranza’s family publicly condemned his disappearance and blamed the case on US actions, even though his body has not been found and evidence is limited.
Carranza’s case, as well as those of Colombian Jason Obando Pérez and Ecuadorian Andrés Fernando Tuvino Chila, survivors of another attack on October 16, are the only cases in which the names of the alleged victims of the attacks have been made public.
The Carranza family’s attorney hopes his petition will pave the way for more families to come forward and publish new evidence about his disappearance.
Weeks of reports
Carranza (42 years old) said goodbye to his family on the morning of September 14 before sailing on his boat, as he usually does, as his cousin Udines Manjares told the Colombian government press.
According to this report, Carranza left the Colombian province of La Guajira, on the border with Venezuela, in the Caribbean.
The next day, Trump announced an attack in international waters on a ship that had left Venezuela, and stated that the three crew members had died.
Since then, Carranza’s niece, Lizbeth Perez, has not heard from her uncle.
Perez told the BBC that Carranza’s five children miss their father, and that the family is anxiously awaiting answers, even without knowing whether the Colombian was actually on the ship during the attack.
credit, Marco Perdomo/AFP via Getty Images
“The truth is, we don’t know if it’s him. We don’t have any evidence that it is him, other than what we’ve seen on the news,” Perez said.
In mid-September, Colombia’s President Petro reported that at least one of several US attacks in the Caribbean had hit a Colombian ship with Colombian citizens on board.
Petro initially relied on “evidence”, without giving further details, and so far the government has not provided evidence, despite a request sent by BBC News Mundo.
On 10/18, a report by state media RTVC said that Carranza, identified as a fisherman, was on one of the boats that was attacked.
Petro strengthened his accusations after the report was published and accused the United States of violating Colombia’s sovereignty and committing murders.
Trump responded by suspending payments and subsidies to Colombia, and days later, imposed sanctions on Petro over his alleged links to drug trafficking.
Perez (Caranza’s niece) told the BBC that Carranza “was a good man, a good person, a good friend, father, uncle and son.”
The alleged victim’s niece added: “He was a happy person. He loved his work and fishing.”
The Carranza family is large. About 20 of their relatives live in a small house in the fishing village of Gera.
After initially identifying him as a poacher, Pietro stated in early November that Carranza wanted to help his daughter get into university, and thus accepted payment from a drug dealer to transport drugs to one of the islands.
Then his ship was hit, according to the President of Colombia.
“We don’t know if he was transporting fish or cocaine, but he (…) was not on death row and there was no reason to kill him,” Petro said.
The Colombian press reported on Carranza’s alleged criminal past, which included stealing weapons from police nine years ago.
The family denies this information, and said that it suffers from being portrayed as a drug dealer.
credit, Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images
According to Kovalik, the family’s lawyer, although the Trump administration asserts that the attacks target drug traffickers, “this does not give the right to carry out extrajudicial executions.”
“These are small boats… If they really believe these people are doing something wrong, they should be arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced,” the lawyer added.
Kovalik shared the complaint document with BBC News Mundo.
The text points to Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defense, as the person responsible for ordering bombings like the one that would have killed Carranza.
When asked for evidence that Carranza’s death occurred under the circumstances described, Kovalik cited the testimony of one of the witnesses named in the petition to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, whose identity he requested to be protected.
“When the witness saw the video of the bombing, he was sure that it was the type of boat that Alejandro used and that it was Alejandro,” Kovalik said. “The times also coincided. This is obviously not conclusive evidence, but it is good evidence.”
suspense
Kovalik is optimistic about the reach of his complaint at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and believes this case could encourage other families to come forward and declare their relatives missing.
Meanwhile, US attacks are making fishermen in South American waters fearful of being confused with drug traffickers on the high seas.
The US government claims that the United States is “threatened” by “terrorist organizations” and that drugs are killing thousands of its citizens.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported that seizures of cocaine – the most widely produced and trafficked drug in South America – increased by 18% in 2024 compared to the previous year.
However, fentanyl is the substance that causes the most deaths in the United States and is produced and shipped into the country from Mexico.
Many in South America do not believe that the goal of the US military operation in the Caribbean is the alleged “drugs,” but rather to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to force him to leave power.
The United States accuses Maduro of heading a criminal organization called Cartel de los Solis (Cartel of the Sun in Spanish), which the Venezuelan denies.
Trump said on Tuesday (02/12) that the United States will begin carrying out “ground attacks” that could target Venezuela or any country it considers to be a producer or seller of illegal drugs on US soil.
Suspense still hangs over the region in the face of an unexpected outcome.