{"id":18187,"date":"2025-10-20T07:44:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=18187"},"modified":"2025-10-20T07:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:44:05","slug":"der-u-boot-krieg-in-der-karibik-trumps-neue-front-und-der-fall-carranza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/der-u-boot-krieg-in-der-karibik-trumps-neue-front-und-der-fall-carranza\/","title":{"rendered":"The Submarine War in the Caribbean - Trump\u2019s New Front and the Carranza Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dead fisherman, a raging president, and a continent watching as the old order of the West begins to crumble. In the Caribbean, where America has projected its power for decades, a single strike has been enough to drive the relationship between Washington and Bogot\u00e1 to the freezing point. Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, accuses the United States of having killed a civilian in Colombian waters. The man, Alejandro Carranza, was said to have been a fisherman whose boat drifted after an engine failure when a US military aircraft fired a missile. Washington calls the target a \u201cnarcotics vessel.\u201d Proof? None, except for declassified video fragments released afterward. Petro calls it murder. Donald Trump calls him an \u201cillegal drug dealer\u201d - and stops all aid payments to Colombia. Our research found that 52-year-old Alejandro Carranza came from the northern Colombian coastal region of Atl\u00e1ntico and made his living from fishing, even though his biography was more complex than President Gustavo Petro portrayed in his first statements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to our research, Carranza had been listed in several judicial proceedings, including one for \u201cDelitos de peligro com\u00fan,\u201d that is, common danger offenses, which can theoretically range from illegal fuel transport to violations of safety regulations. However, no final conviction had been recorded. Friends described him as a casual fisherman who often worked for other boat owners. On September 15, 2025, his boat was hit by a US missile in the Caribbean - according to Washington, it was a drug vessel, according to Bogot\u00e1, a disabled fishing boat with a distress signal. The United States has so far provided no evidence. Legally, the strike operates in a prohibited zone: there was neither a UN resolution nor an explicit mandate from the US Congress that would legitimize such military operations against alleged smugglers in foreign territorial waters. Under international law, such an attack would be unlawful without an immediate threat or the consent of the affected state. The Carranza case thus stands as an example of the erosion of legal boundaries in the name of drug enforcement - and of the silence of the institutions that should be enforcing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An entry in the Colombian judicial register TYBA confirms that Alejandro Andr\u00e9s Carranza Medina was listed in several proceedings in the city of Santa Marta, including one for \u201ccommon danger offenses\u201d that can cause harm to the public. Two other files concern civil and enforcement matters. The documents show no final verdict. In Colombia, such proceedings can remain open for years and also cover minor violations, such as safety breaches or the transport of unauthorized materials - categories that often affect people working in coastal fishing or small-scale trade.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What seems like a grotesque escalation of personal vanity is in fact a geopolitical rupture. For the first time in decades, American military power is visibly being directed against allies. The operation ordered by Trump in the Caribbean - officially an \u201canti-drug offensive,\u201d in reality a covert campaign against Venezuela - has already killed more than 30 people. The boats that are hit are small, unregistered, in most cases without clear origin. Their destruction is uploaded in 20-second clips on government platforms, accompanied by words like \u201cFentanyl\u201d and \u201cNarco-terrorists.\u201d But none of these cases has yet been reviewed by a court. Legal experts speak of extralegal killings. The United Nations calls them \u201cextrajudicial executions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petro has said publicly what many governments only dare to think. He accuses Washington of having violated his country\u2019s sovereignty and calls on the attorney general\u2019s office to sue the United States in both international and American courts. \u201cThis is Bol\u00edvar\u2019s homeland,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd they are killing his children with bombs,\u201d a deliberate historical statement. In Latin America, Bol\u00edvar stands for self-determination and the belief that no foreign nation has the right to dictate the fate of the continent. With this phrase, Petro linked the US attack to a long chain of interventions that have shaped Latin America since the 19th century - from military incursions to covert operations to economic coercion. He spoke as the president of a country that was once Washington\u2019s most loyal ally and now must watch as its citizens die by American missiles - without evidence, without legal basis, without a congressional mandate. In Petro\u2019s words, the death of the fisherman became a symbol - of the return of colonial patterns under a new name and of the dignity of a state that refuses to bow its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His Foreign Ministry called it a \u201cdirect threat to national sovereignty\u201d and warned of an illegal intervention. Trump\u2019s response followed within seconds: the Republican called Petro \u201cinsane,\u201d \u201cpopulist,\u201d and \u201cincompetent,\u201d announced that he would cut all aid funds, and promised new tariffs on Colombian exports. \u201cColombia is a drug factory,\u201d he declared to reporters aboard Air Force One. \u201cYour president is a lunatic, and we will shut him down soon - not nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n