On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, I filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of the family of Alejandro Carranza—a Colombian fisherman who went out in his boat on the Caribbean Sea, attempting to fish for marlin and tuna, but who never came home. Instead, he was murdered through a “kinetic attack” (bombing) carried out by the United States on September 15, 2025.
I met Alejandro’s family in early November in their home town of Santa Marta, Colombia, and agreed to take their case for compensation for their loss. The family seemed bereft and destitute, having lost their family’s chief breadwinner. His wife, Katerine Hernández, told CBS News that Alejandro was a “good man” devoted to fishing, adding that, “if he was some kind of narco-terrorist, then why are we living in misery instead of a mansion?”
After much research and consideration, I decided to bring the case before the IACHR because it seemed to be the one forum which offered a venue to petition against the United States directly for violations committed outside the U.S. territory.
In the petition, we allege a violation of numerous provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, also known as the “Bogotá Declaration” because it was signed in Bogotá, Colombia in 1948.
It is indeed the oldest human rights instrument in the world, even older than the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the most cited human rights document), which was signed later that same year.
Given Alejandro’s nationality, of course, it feels fitting to invoke the Bogota Declaration.
It is worth noting that, in the year the Bogota Declaration and Universal Declaration of Human Rights were signed, popular, leftist Colombian presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was assassinated.
Many believe that it was the newly formed CIA which was responsible, though this remains unproven. What followed in Colombia was the period of “La Violencia” in which an estimated quarter million Colombians were killed in a civil war that resulted from the assassination.
Amongst other provisions, we cited provisions of the Declaration guaranteeing the Right to Life, the Right to Due Process and the Right to Trial—all rights denied Alejandro and the other 90 or so individuals killed on the high seas by the U.S. without trial or even criminal charge.
A number of journalists have asked me whether I believe Alejandro to be “innocent.” Of course, my answer has been that all of the victims have been innocent because, in the U.S. and other countries which claim to be civilized and bound by the rule of law, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. And none of these individuals has been tried, much less proven guilty.
Moreover, as I have also noted, even if they were found guilty of drug trafficking in a state with the death penalty, they would not be sentenced to death, as mere trafficking in illicit drugs is not a capital crime. In other words, there is no discernable justification that the U.S. has for these killings, which simply amount to wanton murder.
President Trump, showing the pretextual nature of his claim that he is carrying out these attacks to fight drugs, just pardoned the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of trafficking hundreds of tons of illicit drugs to the U.S.
Of course, Trump’s show and use of force in the Caribbean is not about fighting drugs but, instead, is about asserting U.S. domination in the region pursuant to the Monroe Doctrine, attempting to effectuate regime change in Venezuela and possibly Colombia as well, all with the goal of taking control of the region’s resources, and especially its huge reserves of oil.
The IACHR petition, in my view, is just one effort to try to hold the U.S. accountable for its crimes in the Caribbean (and now the Pacific as well) and to try to deter such misdeeds in the future.
Much is at stake here. If the U.S. can get away with killing people on the high seas based on the mere allegation of drug trafficking, it can get away with killing anyone at any time, including U.S. citizens, without charge and without trial.
I believe that this is indeed the point.
The Trump administration seems hell-bent on demonstrating that it is not bound by the rule of law, either domestic or international, by public opinion or by simple morality and decency.
These killings, the mass ICE detentions, as well as the continued support for the genocide in Gaza are all sending this message to the world. If we fail to effectively stand up to this lawlessness and terror, none of us is safe.
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About the Author
Daniel Kovalik graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1993. He then served as in-house counsel for the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW) until 2019.
While with the USW, he worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum—cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia.
The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.”
Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia.
He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects. He is the author of several books including The Plot To Overthrow Venezuela, How The US Is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil, which includes a Foreword by Oliver Stone; The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran; and with Jeremy Kuzmarov, Syria: Anatomy of a Regime Change.
Daniel can be reached at dkovalik@outlook.com.
