Overview
- In interviews during a tour that ended in Qatar, President Gustavo Petro called U.S. missile attacks on suspected traffickers’ boats in the Caribbean extrajudicial executions.
- The United Nations said it sees no legal justification for the maritime bombings and urged a rapid, independent and transparent investigation into all incidents.
- Petro linked U.S. decertification and his placement on the so‑called Clinton List to Colombia’s decision to buy new Swedish Gripen jets instead of used F‑16s, presenting the measures as retaliation.
- He said he feels blackmailed by the United States but insisted Colombia will not be isolated, and he advocated creating a South American defense alliance independent of Washington and Moscow.
- Separately, a car bomb at a police station in Suárez, Cauca killed at least two people and wounded one; authorities blamed the FARC dissident EMC and offered up to 200 million pesos for information.