UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) head Volker Turk voiced the first outright condemnation of US strikes from a UN organisation in a statement on Friday.
“These attacks – and their mounting human cost – are unacceptable,” Turk said. “The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.”
Speaking on Turk’s behalf at a regular UN briefing, spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said the top UN official believed Washington’s conduct violated international human rights law and called for “prompt, independent, and transparent investigations”.
US President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation in the effort to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region, Al Jazeera reported.
His increasingly belligerent approach to Venezuela and Colombia, both led by left-wing governments, suggests possible ulterior motives, perhaps even “regime change” in the former.
The US has recently sent an aircraft carrier strike group to Latin America, in a major escalation of its military presence in the region, prompting speculation of a possible effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government.
MNA
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