While visiting Brussels, President Gustavo Petro urged that Qatar, which has mediated conflicts elsewhere, could serve as an intermediary to push the United States to “cease the aggression with missiles” in the Caribbean Sea, according to AP News.
Petro’s remarks followed his claim that Colombian citizens may have been aboard the latest boat destroyed by the U.S. military, a claim that the US has categorically denied.
He also stressed that drug interdiction should focus on captures, not killings, calling the U.S. strikes “disproportionate” and “murder”.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that he has the necessary authorization for the strikes, framing them as part of a war on drug traffickers now designated as “narco-terrorists.”
Petro pointed to his administration’s earlier negotiations with the Clan del Golfo in Qatar, and now suggested the same scheme be extended to groups like the Sierra Nevada Self-Defense Forces.