Did the U.S. Just Kill a Random Fisherman?
Plus: Karl Marxing my neighborhood, No Kings, the limits of tariff revenue, and more...
Submarine struck: Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the U.S. of murdering one of his people—an innocent fisherman—in a strike intended for boats carrying drugs and narcotraffickers.
This accusation angered President Donald Trump, who responded by ratcheting up tariffs on Colombia and slashing foreign assistance.
"US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters," wrote Petro on X. "Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing. The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure. We await explanations from the US government."
Funcionarios del gobierno de los EEUU han cometido un asesinato y violado nuestra soberanía en aguas territoriales
El pescador Alejandro Carranza no tenía vínculos con el narco y sus actividad diaria era pescar.
La lancha colombiana estaba la deriva y con la señal de avería…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 19, 2025
"President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia. It has 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," wrote Trump on Truth Social. "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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Petro is indeed an ally of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and a former Marxist guerilla fighter. He and Trump have sparred before, when Petro tried to refuse deportation flights of his own nationals earlier this year.
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But a pattern is emerging of possibly innocent victims being killed by the boat strikes. Over the last few weeks, at least 32 people have been killed by the U.S. via seven strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean. Carranza isn't the only innocent believed to have been killed; the family of 26-year-old Trinidadian fisherman Chad Joseph claims he's gone missing and that they believe one of the boat strikes likely killed him (along with his neighbor, a man called Samaroo).
The first boat attack, which killed 11 and was carried out on September 2, killed eight people from the Venezuelan town of San Juan de Unare. Soon after, "Venezuelan security officials descended on San Juan de Unare, cut off the electricity and made clear that public pronouncements about the attacks were not welcome, according to four townspeople, including the niece of one of the victims. Posts were deleted," reports The New York Times. "The wife of one of the people, who lived in Güiria, a town also on the Venezuelan coast, told The New York Times on the condition that her name not be published that her husband, a fisherman, had gone to work one day and had never returned."
Meanwhile, last week's strike—the sixth of this kind conducted by the U.S. in the Caribbean—ended up injuring one Colombian man, 34-year-old Jeison Obando Pérez, along with an Ecuadorian national. Both men were "aboard a semi-submersible that was blown up Thursday" yet they survived and were rescued and treated by U.S. forces. ("Obando Pérez was repatriated Saturday and hospitalized in Colombia with brain trauma and breathing on a ventilator, Armando Benedetti, Colombia's minister of the interior, said in a social media posting on Saturday night," per the Times. "Once he is awake, he will be 'processed by the justice system for drug trafficking,' Mr. Benedetti said.")
A few scenarios are possible. One is that the U.S. really is striking narcotraffickers, and that either their families don't know their dead relatives are narcotraffickers or are obfuscating. Another possibility is that the U.S. is striking innocent fisherman and calling them narcotraffickers. There could, of course, be a mix of smugglers and fishermen.
But the U.S. government is almost definitely acting illegally here. These people are not combatants. We don't know if they're affiliated with groups designated terrorist organizations. Congress has not approved these strikes, and Trump doesn't even appear to be seeking retroactive approval. When some senators did try to check Trump via the War Powers Act, it didn't go all that well. And rest assured that Petro, Maduro, and all other who stand to profit are going to keep milking this for all it's worth, using Trump's inevitable screw-ups as a means of distracting from their own misbehavior.
Scenes from New York: The brainworms are multiplying.
At Clinton & Greene, among the mansions pic.twitter.com/5MG8vBOJSb
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) October 20, 2025
QUICK HITS
- Israel struck Gaza over the weekend. Here's some background:
Soon after the explosion in Rafah, I'm told by a source familiar, the White House and Pentagon knew that the incident was caused by an Israeli settler bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance — contradicting Netanyahu's claim that Hamas had popped up from tunnels.
After… https://t.co/Xwy63sEL3M
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 19, 2025
- This is different than how Israeli media is describing the fighting:
In Israeli media, they are still describing it as 'two terrorists emerged from a tunnel and fired an anti-tank missile'
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) October 19, 2025
- "The administration has brought in about $200 billion in tariff revenue so far this year, cash the president and members of his Cabinet have boasted is a sign their tariff hikes are succeeding—and have suggested they can now use at their discretion," reports Politico, referring to comments made by Vice President J.D. Vance that the troops can be paid during the shutdown by the tariff revenue."The reality, however, is that the White House has extremely limited power to direct those funds without congressional direction, since revenue generated by the federal government flows into the Treasury and Congress decides how that money gets doled out. While the president has tested the bounds of the executive branch's power over spending by freezing, shifting and canceling billions of dollars in other cash Congress has already approved, administration officials have thus far struggled to find ways to use the tariff revenue as Trump and his officials have promised."
- The most beautiful anti-Cuomo diatribe I've ever heard.
- Department of Homeland Security buys a few new private jets for Secretary Kristi Noem, to the tune of $172 million.
- No Kings rallies were held this weekend all over America. It's not clear what they think will change due to their protesting, but I rest my case.
Personally, I think it's great our seniors got outside today and enjoyed some great fall weather.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 18, 2025
