Colombia’s government says a fisherman killed in a recent US strike near Venezuelan waters was not a drug trafficker — directly challenging Washington’s claim that its growing Caribbean campaign is hitting «narco-terrorist» targets and pushing relations with the key non-NATO ally into a new spiral.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who aligns politically with Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, has had a combative relationship with President Donald Trump and is expected to challenge US actions. Yet Washington has released only limited evidence linking the targeted vessels to drug networks, and US intelligence officials have declined to say how confident they are in the assessments that led to the strikes.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has insisted the intelligence is conclusive.

«Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,» Hegseth said after an Oct. 3 strike.

WASHINGTON’S SHADOW WAR: HOW STRIKES ON CARTELS THREATEN TO COLLAPSE MADURO’S REGIME

Over the weekend, U.S. Southern Command carried out another strike, this one targeting a vessel it said was affiliated with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Hegseth said three people were killed.

«The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,» he said. «There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike — which was conducted in international waters.»

Petro, however, claimed the boat belonged to a Colombian fisherman.

«The fisherman’s boat from Santa Marta was not from the ELN; it belonged to a humble family, lovers of the sea, from which they drew their food,» he wrote on X. «What do you say to the family of Alejandro Carranza? He was a humble human being.»

Trump responded by lashing out at Petro, calling him an «illegal drug trafficker,» announcing that the U.S. would cut off all counter-narcotics aid to Colombia, and again threatening steep tariffs. He also suggested that U.S. strikes could expand to Colombian territory.

«Petro, a low-rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely,» Trump said.

And in response to Petro’s assertion, Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell fired back in a statement to Fox News Digital: «Every action taken by the Department is deliberate, lawful, and precise. The male narco-terrorists killed in DoW operations were affiliated members of Transnational Criminal Organizations actively transporting illicit material along known trafficking routes in international waters.»

While administration officials have posted video clips of the strikes and maintained that their intelligence is sound, they have not released specific evidence of the type or quantity of narcotics allegedly aboard the vessels, nor have they identified the individuals killed.

And in response to Petro’s assertion, Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell fired back: «Every action taken by the Department is deliberate, lawful, and precise. (Department of War)

«In each case, the vessel was assessed by the U.S. intelligence community to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization engaged at that time in trafficking illicit drugs, which could ultimately be used to kill Americans,» White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital. 

VENEZUELA HUMAN RIGHTS HIT NEW LOW AS US PUTS $50M BOUNTY ON MADURO’S HEAD: STATE DEPARTMENT

A White House official suggested to the Associated Press that they had been «much more forthcoming» than President Barack Obama’s administration was when it authorized strikes on militants in the Middle East.

Trump insists the strikes are saving tens of thousands of lives.

«A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory,» he said after an Oct. 14 strike.

Trump insists the strikes are saving tens of thousands of lives.»A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory,» he said after an Oct. 14 strike. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Defense experts believe it will be up to Congress to decide if they want to demand more information about the strikes, which have killed more than 30 people.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called for his committee to hold a panel on the strikes on Monday.

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«President Trump and his administration continue to fail to answer pressing questions regarding the president’s orders to carry out lethal U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea,» Smith said in a statement.

«They have failed to demonstrate the legality of these strikes, provide transparency on the process used or even a list of cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations,» he added. «We have also yet to see any evidence to support the president’s unilateral determinations that these vessels or their activities posed imminent threats to the United States of America that warranted military force rather than law enforcement-led interdiction.»

Los ministros de Relaciones Exteriores de Rusia y Estados Unidos mantuvieron el lunes conversaciones telefónicas para coordinar los preparativos de la cumbre entre los presidentes Vladímir Putin y Donald Trump que se celebrará en Budapest, anunciaron ambos gobiernos.

El canciller ruso Serguei Lavrov y el secretario de Estado estadounidense Marco Rubio sostuvieron “un debate constructivo sobre los posibles pasos concretos” para implementar los acuerdos alcanzados durante la conversación telefónica del 16 de octubre entre Putin y Trump, en la que se acordó realizar el encuentro en la capital húngara, informó el Ministerio de Exteriores ruso en un comunicado.

Rubio “enfatizó la importancia de los próximos encuentros como una oportunidad para que Moscú y Washington colaboren en el avance de una solución duradera a la guerra entre Rusia y Ucrania, en consonancia con la visión del presidente Trump”, según un breve comunicado del Departamento de Estado difundido por el portavoz adjunto principal Tommy Pigott.

Lavrov y Rubio se reunirán próximamente para concretar la agenda y la fecha de la cumbre, que debería tener lugar en el plazo aproximado de dos semanas, según adelantó Trump. Será el primer encuentro presencial entre ambos diplomáticos desde que se vieron por última vez a mediados de agosto en Alaska.

El viceministro de Exteriores ruso, Serguéi Riabkov, admitió que aún se desconoce dónde tendrá lugar la reunión entre Lavrov y Rubio. “Lo más importante ahora es transmitir a los estadounidenses que Anchorage estableció el marco en el que hay que trabajar”, dijo Riabkov, refiriéndose a la capital de Alaska donde se realizaron las conversaciones previas.

El presidente ucraniano Volodimir Zelensky declaró el lunes que está dispuesto a participar en la cumbre de Budapest si es invitado, aunque ni Moscú ni Washington lo mencionaron en sus comunicados. El Kremlin dijo anteriormente que no tenía “detalles” sobre si Zelensky asistiría.

“Si soy invitado a Budapest, ya sea en un formato donde nos reunamos los tres o, como se llama, diplomacia de lanzadera, donde el presidente Trump se reúne con Putin y el presidente Trump se reúne conmigo, entonces en un formato u otro, llegaremos a un acuerdo”, dijo Zelensky a periodistas.

El líder ucraniano también criticó a Hungría como lugar de encuentro, señalando que el país es el socio más cercano de Moscú en la Unión Europea. Zelensky recordó que los países occidentales alentaron a Ucrania a renunciar a su arsenal nuclear en una cumbre celebrada en Budapest en 1994, un momento que muchos ucranianos ahora consideran una traición. “Otro escenario de ‘Budapest’ tampoco sería positivo”, afirmó.

Los esfuerzos diplomáticos para poner fin a la invasión rusa, que cumple tres años y medio, se han estancado desde que Trump y Putin se reunieron para conversaciones de paz en Alaska en agosto.

El presidente francés Emmanuel Macron dio la bienvenida el lunes a la cumbre planificada, pero dijo que ucranianos y europeos deberían estar incluidos.

Tanto Ucrania como la Unión Europea consideran que la cumbre de Alaska sirvió para que Putin ganara tiempo y temen que en Budapest se repita el mismo escenario.

El Kremlin negó que Rusia haya cambiado su postura respecto a sus principales demandas. Putin exige que Kiev retire sus tropas de las cuatro regiones anexionadas por Moscú y renuncie al ingreso en la OTAN antes de comenzar a negociar.

Medios internacionales informaron que Putin se mostró dispuesto el jueves pasado, durante su conversación telefónica con Trump, a detener el avance en las regiones de Kherson y Zaporizhzhia si Kiev ordenaba el repliegue de sus tropas en el Donbás, que incluye Donetsk y Lugansk.

“La postura de Rusia y el presidente Putin es coherente y bien conocida”, dijo Dmitri Peskov, portavoz presidencial, en su rueda de prensa telefónica diaria.

Moscú y Kiev mantienen diferencias fundamentales sobre el proceso: el primero quiere consensuar una hoja de ruta para la paz antes de declarar un alto el fuego, mientras el segundo demanda que primero cesen los combates para después abordar las condiciones de un acuerdo definitivo.

The thieves who brazenly robbed the Louvre Museum in Paris and stole priceless jewelry in one of the most daring museum heists in recent memory may have been hired by a private collector, officials said.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told local media that investigators believe the robbers, who carried out the raid in just seven minutes in broad daylight Sunday, may have been commissioned by a collector or purely motivated by the value of the jewels and precious metals, Reuters reported.

«We’re looking at the hypothesis of organized crime,» Beccuau told BFM TV, noting that the thieves could be professionals operating on spec for a buyer.  

Beccuau added that if a collector did commission the heist, there is hope that the stolen pieces will remain intact and well-preserved until recovered, the outlet reported. If the thieves acted independently, they may have targeted the jewels for their potential use in laundering criminal proceeds.

‘BRAZEN’ LOUVRE THIEVES MADE TARGETED HEIST, JEWELS COULD BE MELTED DOWN: EXPERT

«Nowadays, anything can be linked to drug trafficking, given the significant sums of money obtained from drug trafficking,» Beccuau said, according to Reuters.

Investigators are keeping all leads open, but foreign interference has reportedly been largely ruled out in the case.

LOUVRE MUSEUM CLOSED AFTER ROBBERY, FRENCH OFFICIAL SAYS

Former jewel thief Larry Lawton, who now assists police on such investigations, told Fox News that the operation «had to be an inside job» or the thieves must have «had inside information.»

«How did they know how thick the glass was, whether there was an alarm on there?» Lawton asked. 

Lawton added that if he were the thieves, he would not immediately sell the items to avoid detection.

«I might put them and stash them somewhere no one knows, wait a year or two,» Lawton said, adding that companies would eventually give out a reward «with no questions asked.» 

«They’ll put up a million dollars for this … obviously they want their jewels back,» he said.

MUSEUM’S ANCIENT BRACELET THEFT JOINS LIST OF OTHER PRICELESS ARTIFACTS STOLEN AND DESTROYED WORLDWIDE

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, announced it would remain closed on Monday following Sunday’s daring theft.

Masked thieves disguised as construction workers struck in front of visitors and staff Sunday morning, a period described as one of the museum’s most chaotic, authorities said. Officials said thieves extended a basket lift to a window and smashed it open with an angle grinder. They reportedly used a disc cutter to slice through glass panes protecting the jewels. 

Thieves executed a daytime heist at the Louvre Museum, stealing French crown jewels. (Thibault Camus : AP)

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A total of nine objects were targeted, eight of which were stolen, officials said. The thieves failed to take the ninth item, the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, during their escape. 

The crown alone is worth tens of millions of euros, though experts say it is not the most significant piece.

Authorities have not yet identified the robbers, who made their escape on motorbikes.