The United States announced Sunday another strike against what it called a drug-running boat, this time attacking an alleged Colombian leftist rebel vessel in an apparent expansion of a U.S. military operation off the coasts of South America.
Word of the attack from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth came as President Donald Trump said the United States is halting financial aid to Colombia and will announce tariffs against it on Monday.
The United States has had warships deployed in the Caribbean off Venezuela since August and has attacked at least six boats it said were running drugs toward the United States, killing at least 27 people so far.
In an escalating war of words, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said Washington was pursuing a "failed strategy" and that the attacks must end.
"The U.S. anti-drug policy... has left a million dead in Latin America and is merely an excuse to control Latin America" and "obtain cheap oil from Venezuela," Petro said in a post on X late Sunday.
"That is why missiles are falling in the Caribbean... on boats carrying people who, whether they are involved in drug trafficking or not, have the right to live."
In a strike carried out Friday, three crew members were killed when U.S. forces attacked a vessel affiliated with Colombia's National Liberation Army, or ELN, Hegseth said.
Hegseth said the vessel was traveling in international waters in an area under the purview of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America. He did not specify where. Colombia has both Caribbean and Pacific coasts.
Trump meanwhile confirmed that the United States would be announcing tariffs on Colombia on Monday, after the information was tweeted by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
"He (Trump) informed me that he is going to be hitting Colombia, not only their drug dealers and traders, but also where it hurts, in the wallet. He will be announcing major Tariffs against the Country of Colombia," Graham's post said.
Trump said Saturday the United States was sending two suspected drug traffickers back to their native Ecuador and Colombia, after a military strike on their "drug-smuggling submarine" in the Caribbean that killed two others.
Asked why the suspects were not headed to the United States to be prosecuted, Vice President JD Vance said such decisions were made "depending on what the scenario is."
"What happens to them? I don't really care, so long as they're not bringing poison into our country," Vance told reporters late Sunday.
Petro earlier confirmed a Colombian had been repatriated. He also accused the United States of murder in the death of a Colombian fisherman killed in a U.S. strike in September.
On Sunday, Trump lashed out at Petro, saying he was doing nothing to stop cocaine production despite "large scale payments and subsidies from the USA."
"AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE" to Colombia, Trump said on his Truth Social platform, adding that Petro is "strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs."
Until now, Colombia has received more U.S. aid than any other country in South America -- $740 million in 2023, according to U.S. government figures. Half of this went to fighting drug trafficking.
In the post, Trump referred to the country as ‘Columbia’ instead of ‘Colombia.’
He called Petro "an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Columbia."
Petro responded angrily to Trump in a series of posts on X, calling him "rude and ignorant."
The verbal exchanges have taken relations between two historic allies to their lowest point in decades.
Last month, Washington announced it had decertified Colombia as an ally in the fight against drugs.
Colombia hit back by halting arms purchases from the United States, its biggest military partner.
Since coming to power in 2022, Petro has championed a paradigm shift in the U.S.-led war on drugs, away from forced eradication to focus on the social problems that fuel drug trafficking.
Under his watch, cultivation of coca, the raw material of cocaine, has increased by about 70 percent, according to Colombian government and United Nations estimates.