Colombian Prez Accuses Trump of Murder. Under Int'l Law When There is No Armed Conflict, Lethal Force Can Only Be Used to Stop an Imminent Deadly Threat if Non-Lethal Force is Not Reasonably Available

Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, has accused Washington of "murder" after the U.S. military struck an alleged drug-trafficking vessel last month.

Petro said the White House had violated the South American country's sovereignty and killed a Colombian fisherman, named by the president as Alejandro Carranza. Colombian media reported Carranza was onboard a boat targeted by U.S. forces on September 15.

President Donald Trump has framed a run of U.S. strikes in the Caribbean since early September as a campaign against drug trafficking into the U.S., particularly from Venezuela, deepening fraught relations with Caracas and Bogotá. Petro said earlier this month: "A new war scenario has opened up: the Caribbean."

At least 27 people had been killed in the strikes, according to the administration's numbers, before the U.S. targeted another alleged drug vessel on Thursday.

The Trump administration has not named those killed in the strikes, nor published proof that those on board the alleged drug boats were involved in narcotics trafficking.

"The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure," Petro said. "We await explanations from the U.S. government."

Local outlet RTVC Noticias reported the boat had left La Guajira in northeastern Colombia early on September 15 and was likely still in Colombian waters when it was attacked. Petro said the U.S. had "violated our sovereignty in territorial waters." [MORE]

THERE IS NO ARMED CONFLICT, SO THE LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT DOES NOT APPLY. THESE ARE JUST MURDERS. Based on the fact that the US has killed persons from another country who were outside of the US, international law applies. The individuals killed have no demonstrable affiliation to the Venezuelan or Columbian government and exhibited no signs of acting under its effective or overall control

The analysis is straightforward:

Is there an armed conflict between the United States and Columbia or Venezuala? The answer is no. So it means that the international human rights law standard applies, which requires the use of lethal force against an individual to be “absolutely necessary.” JAN RÖMER, KILLING IN A GRAY AREA BETWEEN HUMANITARIAN LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS 102 (2010). An international court would then determine whether the individual(s) in the boat(s) posed a “concrete, specific, and imminent threat to life and physical safety,” and whether the United States could have reasonably used nonlethal force to address that threat. In other words, due to the fact that the boat strikes have occurred outside of an armed conflict, the Blight House’s actions are not lawful unless the individuals posed such a threat and such force was necessary. [MORE] and [MORE]