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War & Peace
Trump Baselessly Calls Colombia's Petro 'Drug Dealer' as US Bombs Another Boat
The leftist Colombian president retorted that "US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters."
Oct 19, 2025
The United States carried out another deadly attack on a boat it claimed was being used by a left-wing Colombian revolutionary group to transport drugs in the Caribbean Sea, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump alleged without evidence that Columbia's president "is an illegal drug dealer."
Hegseth said the strike, which took place on Friday, targeted "a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a designated terrorist organization."
The ELN is Colombia's last-standing far-left guerrilla group. Founded in 1964, the group fought to liberate Colombia from longtime right-wing rule, end foreign influence—especially from the United States—and achieve social justice and equality for the poor. ELN has been accused of using proceeds from drug trafficking to fund its insurgency.
"The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics," Hegseth said without offering evidence. "There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike."
"These cartels are the al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security, and poison our people," the defense secretary added. "The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like al-Qaeda."
Hegseth's announcement followed a post by Trump on his Truth Social network calling leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro "an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs."
Trump offered no evidence to back his baseless claim. The US itself has a long history of involvement in the international drug trade, from American capitalists profiting immensely from opium trafficking in the 19th century to the Central Intelligence Agency working with narcotrafficking anti-communist groups in Southeast Asia and Central America during the Cold War, helping to fuel first the heroin and later crack cocaine epidemics in the United States.
The US president further alleged that drugs have "become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long-term rip off of America."
Trump added:
AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA. The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc. Petro, a low-rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.
According to The Associated Press, Colombia received an estimated $230 million in US aid for the budget year that ended on September 30.
Trump has ordered attacks on at least seven alleged drug-running boats without providing concrete evidence to support his claims. At least 29 people have been killed in the attacks.
In a series of posts on the social media site X, Petro said that "US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters," repeating claims that some victims of the US strikes, including Thursday's, were fishermen.
"I respect the history, culture, and people of the USA," Petro wrote in a subsequent post. "They are not my enemies, nor do I feel them as such. The problem is with Trump, not with the USA."
Refuting Trump's accusation that he has "done nothing to stop" drug trafficking, Petro noted that "we have reduced the coca leaf crop growth rate to almost 0%. In past governments, there were years with nearly 100% annual growth. Today, half of the total coca leaf crop area has crops that have been abandoned for three years."
The Trump administration said Thursday that survivors of one recent strike, a Colombian and an Ecuadorean, would be repatriated to their respective countries, possibly as a way to skirt concerns over the legality of the attacks.
On Thursday, Hegseth said that US Southern Command chief Adm. Alvin Holsey—who is overseeing the boat attacks—will step down at the end of the year. Holsey's resignation reportedly stems from concerns over the strikes.
"If Commander Alvin has resigned for refusing to be complicit in the murder of Caribbean civilians by US missiles deliberately launched against them from comfortable offices, I consider him a hero and a true officer of the armies of the Americas," Petro said in response to the news. "I said in New York, on one of its streets, that I asked the officers of the US military forces not to aim their weapons at humanity."
The Trump administration revoked Petro's US visa following his speech.
"I believe that Commander Alvin has proven himself to be a man of worth by refusing to aim his weapons at humanity. Perhaps Commander Alvin does not know it, but he is a true officer of the armies of Washington and Bolívar," Petro added, referring to George Washington and the great South American liberator Simón Bolívar.
On his first day back in the White House in January, Trump signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last month, the president reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat drug cartels abroad, sparking fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US attacks, invasions, occupations, and other interventions since the issuance of the dubious Monroe Doctrine in 1823.
Trump has also deployed a small armada of naval warships off the coast of Venezuela, which has endured more than a century of Washington's imperialist meddling, raising fears of yet another US war of choice and regime change.
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Ceasefire Imperiled as Israel Kills Scores of Palestinians in Gaza
Officials said that at least 51 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks Sunday, including massacres at a school, café, beach, and refugee camp.
Oct 19, 2025
The shaky Gaza ceasefire further frayed on Sunday as Israel launched at least 20 airstrikes and blocked all aid delivery in the obliterated Palestinian exclave, while Hamas rejected US allegations that it is preparing to violate the tenuous truce.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it has "now begun a wave of strikes" in southern Gaza "following a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today" by Hamas, whose fighters are accused of killing two Israeli occupation troops and wounding three others in Rafah on Sunday morning.
Gaza officials said that at least 51 Palestinians, including numerous children, were killed across the strip on Sunday. Attacks include but are not limited to a double-tap drone and missile strike on a café west of Deir al-Balah that killed five people, all of them reportedly civilians; an airstrike on a the al-Bureij refugee camp that killed four civilians; an airstrike on the Sardi school that killed four displaced civilians; artillery shelling that killed six civilians on al-Zawaida Beach; and the bombing of a building housing journalists in al-Zawaida that killed two civilians.
The US State Department on Saturday accused Hamas of planning an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza “in grave violation of the ceasefire." Hamas has been battling Israeli-backed criminal gangs that oppose its longtime rule of Gaza.
In a statement Sunday, Hamas slammed the US allegations as lies that “fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organized aggression” against Palestinians.
Hamas urged the US to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and to focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement."
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has violated the nine-day ceasefire at least 48 times, including by bombing residential areas and killing civilians approaching the so-called "yellow line" beyond which Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the truce.
Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
On Friday, Israeli forces massacred 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return by bus to their home in Gaza City.
In response to what it said were Hamas ceasefire violations, Israel on Sunday closed off crossing points into Gaza, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the strip, where famine conditions persist due to the siege imposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who are both fugitives from the International Criminal Court—at the start of the genocidal war two years ago.
Amjad Al-Shawwa, who heads the Network of Civil Society Organizations in Gaza, warned Sunday that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, especially pregnant women and children, are suffering severe malnutrition. At least hundreds of Gazans have died of malnutrition and related causes.
A senior Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Guardian that “round-the-clock” talks were under way to salvage the ceasefire.
Responding to the renewed Israeli bombing, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: "Since the start of the ceasefire, the Netanyahu regime has been itching to fully restart the genocide in Gaza."
:The cruel and unnecessary mass bombing of civilians across Gaza constitutes a blatant violation of President [Donald] Trump's ceasefire agreement and a resumption of the genocide," CAIR added. "President Trump must rein in the Israeli occupation forces and stop sending American weapons and American taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s war machine.”
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Israel Massacres 11 Members of Palestinian Family in Deadliest Gaza Ceasefire Violation
Gaza officials said Israeli forces have broken the tenuous weeklong truce 47 times, killing 38 Palestinians and wounding 143 more.
Oct 18, 2025
Israeli forces killed 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return to their home in the flattened Gaza Strip on Friday evening in what local officials said was the deadliest violation of the shaky weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops fired a tank shell at a bus transporting members of the Abu Shaaban family, who were trying to return to inspect their home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Among the 11 victims were three women and seven children ages 5-13.
The IDF claimed the "suspicious vehicle" crossed the so-called "yellow line," beyond which Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, and that warning shots were fired at the bus before troops acted to "remove the threat."
However, according to the Palestine Chronicle, Basal asserted that “the family could have been warned or dealt with in a way that did not lead to murder.”
“What happened confirms that the occupation remains thirsty for blood and determined to commit crimes against innocent civilians,” he added.
In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement:
The Israeli government's massacre of a family traveling to assess the remains of their home is the latest deliberate and blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement. The Trump administration must demand that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu stop using American taxpayer dollars and American weapons to sabotage the ceasefire agreement that America brokered so that he can restart the genocide in Gaza.
The State Department and the United Nations must also investigate horrific signs of torture and extrajudicial killing found on the bodies of returned Palestinian hostages. Torturing people to death after kidnapping them and holding them without charge is another example of [breaking] not only international law, but also US law related to foreign aid recipients.
Gaza's Government Media Office said Saturday that Israeli forces have broken the truce 47 times, killing 38 people and wounding 143 others "in clear and blatant violation of the ceasefire decision and the principles of international humanitarian law."
Israeli forces have killed at least 68,116 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose figures are likely a vast undercount. Leaked IDF data suggest more than 80% of those killed were civilians. More than 170,200 other Palestinians have been wounded, with approximately 9,500 others missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble.
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Senators Launch Bipartisan Bid to Block Trump War on Venezuela
"Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela," said Sen. Adam Schiff. "And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war."
Oct 17, 2025
With President Donald Trump floating potential military action within Venezuela and authorizing operations by the Central Intelligence Agency after launching several deadly strikes on boats near the South American country, three lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Friday said they would force a new vote on blocking the White House from carrying out an attack there.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) last week introduced a measure to rein in Trump's bombing of boats in the Caribbean, which the White House has claimed are being used to traffic drugs into the US and present an imminent threat.
The measure failed, with one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) joining most of the GOP in opposing it and two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), supporting it.
Kaine and Schiff on Friday were reportedly hoping that a new bipartisan measure, introduced with Paul, would garner more support from the Republicans.
They said they would force a vote on a war powers resolution to block the use of force by US troops "within or against" Venezuela unless it was "explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force."
The 1973 War Powers Act requires Congress to consider and vote on resolutions regarding a president's power to enter an armed conflict without congressional authorization.
"Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela. And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war in South America," said Schiff.
"Americans don’t want to send their sons and daughters into more wars—especially wars that carry a serious risk of significant destabilization and massive new waves of migration in our hemisphere."
The lawmakers announced the resolution as it was reported that two survivors of the military's most recent drone strike on a boat have been detained by US forces, with legal experts questioning whether they are prisoners or war or criminal suspects.
The White House has insisted it is acting within its rights to defend US security by striking boats it believes are carrying drugs—even as details have emerged calling into doubt the allegations that the vessels pose a threat.
Venezuela is not a significant source of drugs that are trafficked into the US—a fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed when a reporter brought it up soon after the military began bombing boats, at least six of which have been struck so far. At least 27 people have been killed, and the grieving family of one victim spoke out Thursday and said they had not been involved in drug trafficking.
Even if the vessels were carrying illegal substances, legal experts and critics in Congress have stressed in recent weeks that they should be dealt with, as in the past, by federal law enforcement agencies, as Congress has not authorized military action against Venezuela or drug cartels.
“The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote," said Paul. "We ought to defend what the Constitution demands: deliberation before war."
Kaine told reporters on Thursday the Congress' knowledge of legal rationale for the boat strikes amounts to “a complete black hole."
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested this week he could further escalate attacks on Venezuela, saying the Caribbean Sea is "very well under control"—even though Vice President JD Vance has joked that the US could accidentally strike fishing boats in its operations there.
"We are certainly looking at land now," Trump said Wednesday.
Kaine said he was "extremely troubled that the Trump administration is considering launching illegal military strikes inside Venezuela without a specific authorization by Congress."
"Americans don’t want to send their sons and daughters into more wars—especially wars that carry a serious risk of significant destabilization and massive new waves of migration in our hemisphere,” said Kaine. “If my colleagues disagree and think a war with Venezuela is a good idea, they need to meet their constitutional obligations by making their case to the American people and passing an authorization for use of military force."
"I urge every senator to join us in stopping this administration from dragging our country into an unauthorized and escalating military conflict," said the senator.
The New York Times reported that Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) could potentially join the effort to pass the war powers resolution after voting against last week's measure, which he said was too broad.
"I am highly concerned," Young said after the vote last week, "about the legality of recent strikes in the Caribbean and the trajectory of military operations without congressional approval or debate and the support of the American people."
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