(WASHINGTON) — The family of a Colombian fisherman who died in a U.S. military boat strike in September has filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging the U.S. government illegally killed him.
Alejandro Carranza was killed in a strike in the Caribbean on Sept. 15, according to the petition, filed on Tuesday.
“From numerous news reports, we know that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was responsible for ordering the bombing of boats like those of Alejandro Carranza and the murder of all those on such boats,” according to the petition. “Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders despite the fact that he did not know the identity of those being targeted for these bombings and extra-judicial killings.”
In the petition, Carranza’s lawyer Dan Kovalik said the fisherman’s family “has no recourse to adequate and effective remedies in Colombia to obtain redress for the injuries 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 ruling it makes would not be legally binding on the U.S.
A Pentagon official told ABC News 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 strike 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 the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing,” Petro said on X last month. “The Colombian boat was adrift and displaying the distress signal due to having an outboard motor. We await explanations from the U.S. government.”
Three people total were killed in the Sept. 15 strike in the Caribbean, U.S. officials said.
President Donald Trump said at the time that he ordered the military strike against a boat that he insisted was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the U.S., telling reporters the operation left “big bags of cocaine and fentanyl” floating around in the ocean.
Since September, Trump and Hegseth have ordered more than 20 military strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration has alleged with little evidence that the boats were smuggling drugs from Venezuela and Colombia. The controversial campaign so far has killed more than 80 people, according to officials.
Hegseth has maintained that the strikes are all legal and claims that the military has evidence that the boats were carrying drugs.
On Capitol Hill, some leaders from both parties have questioned the legality of the strikes and whether the president has the constitutional power to authorize them.
The first such incident, which occurred on Sept. 2, has been under scrutiny following a recent Washington Post report that cited two people with direct knowledge of the operations saying a second strike was ordered on the boat that killed two survivors.
One person familiar with details of the incident confirmed to ABC News that there were survivors from the initial strike on the boat and that those survivors were killed in a subsequent strike.
Democrats say that alone could be enough to suggest a war crime occurred. The laws of war require either side in a conflict to provide care for wounded and shipwrecked troops.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who oversaw the initial attack, has defended the strike as legal.
The defense secretary told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he watched the first strike unfold before leaving for meetings. He says he did not see survivors or any strikes that followed and said the admiral who, he said, ordered the second strike made the “right call.”
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