Colombia’s Foreign Ministry condemned a US strike on a vessel allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday.

In a press statement, the Foreign Ministry urged the government of US President Donald Trump “to cease these attacks” and urged Washington DC “to respect the rules laid down by international law.”

The Foreign Ministry additionally called on the Trump administration to share information regarding the attack and similar strikes in the Caribbean Sea, and to “adopt comprehensive and effective strategies to continue the joint fight against drugs in the region, as we have been doing for decades.”

The national government reiterates its call to the United States government to engage in dialogue through diplomatic channels to clarify these types of situations and to adopt comprehensive and effective strategies to continue the joint fight against drugs in the region, as we have been doing for decades.

Foreign Ministry

The maritime extrajudicial executions have escalated tensions between the US and Colombia, whose president Gustavo Petro recalled his ambassador to Washington DC and announced legal action after the alleged assassination of a Colombian fisherman.

Since then, Human Rights Watch issued a statement confirming that the killing of people deemed “narco-terrorists” by the US Government were “unlawful extrajudicial killings.”

According to Human Rights Watch, “the strikes come amid efforts by the White House to secure broad new authority to target so-called ???narco-terrorists,??? which could facilitate further human rights violations.”

The problem of narcotics entering the United States is not an armed conflict, and US officials cannot circumvent their human rights obligations by pretending otherwise.

HRW Washington director Sarah Yager

With the latest attack in the Pacific Ocean, the number of people killed in US strikes on vessels climbed to 34.