The family of a Colombian fisherman who died in an attack on a US military ship in September filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging that the US government illegally killed him.
Alejandro Carranza died in an attack in the Caribbean on September 15, according to the petition filed Tuesday.
“From numerous news reports, we know that United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was responsible for ordering the bombing of ships like Alejandro Carranza’s and the murder of everyone aboard those ships,” according to the petition. “Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders even though he did not know the identity of the targets of these attacks and extrajudicial executions.”
In the petition, Carranza’s attorney, Dan Kovalik, said the fisherman’s family “has no recourse to adequate and effective remedies in Colombia to obtain reparation for the damages they have suffered due to the actions of the United States.”
While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights can investigate the complaint and issue findings, any resolution it issues would not be legally binding on the US.
TO A Pentagon official told ABC News that the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The filing comes after Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the U.S. government of committing murder for the attack that killed Carranza.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking and his daily activity was fishing,” Petro said in X last month. “The Colombian vessel was adrift and gave the distress signal because it had an outboard motor. We await explanations from the United States government.”
Screenshot of a video posted on social media by President Donald Trump, on September 15, 2025, of what he said was a US military attack on a ship supposedly transporting drugs from Venezuela.
Donald J. Trump/Social Truth
In total, three people were killed in the Sept. 15 attack in the Caribbean, U.S. officials said.
President Donald Trump said at the time that he ordered the military strike on a ship he said was transporting illegal drugs from Venezuela to the United States, telling reporters that the operation left “large bags of cocaine and fentanyl” floating in the ocean.
Since September, Trump and Hegseth have ordered more than 20 military strikes against suspected drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration has alleged, with little evidence, that the ships were smuggling drugs from Venezuela and Colombia. According to officials, the controversial campaign has so far killed more than 80 people.
Hegseth has maintained that all attacks are legal and says the military has evidence that the boats were carrying drugs.
In the Capitol, some leaders of both parties have questioned the legality of strikes and whether the president has the constitutional power to authorize them.
The first such incident, which occurred on September 2, has come under scrutiny following a recent report by the Washington Post. report which cited two people with direct knowledge of the operations as saying that a second attack was ordered on the ship that killed two survivors.
A person familiar with the details of the incident confirmed to ABC News that there were survivors of the initial attack on the ship and that those survivors were killed in a subsequent attack.
Democrats say that alone could be enough to suggest a war crime occurred. The laws of war require either party to the conflict to provide care for wounded and shipwrecked troops.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who oversaw the initial attack, defended that the attack was legal.
The Defense Secretary told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he watched the first attack unfold before leaving for the meetings. He says he saw no survivors or any subsequent attack and said the admiral who he claims ordered the second attack made the “right decision.”
