Lizbeth Perez looks fearful as she gazes out onto the postcard-perfect fishing bay of Taganga, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, recalling the moment she last spoke to her uncle in September.
He was a kind man, a good person, a friend. A good father, uncle, son. He was a cheerful person. He loved his work and his fishing.
Alejandro Carranza said goodbye to his family early in the morning on 14 September, before going out on his boat as usual, his cousin Audenis Manjarres told state media. He left from La Guajira, a region in neighbouring Venezuela, he said.
The next day, US President Donald Trump announced that a US strike in international waters had targeted a vessel which had departed Venezuela, and that three people he described as extraordinarily violent drug-trafficking cartels and narco-terrorists were killed.
Ms Perez has not seen her uncle since. His five children are missing their dad, she says, and the family are still waiting anxiously for answers, not knowing if he was even on the boat hit in the strike.
The truth is we don't know it was him, we don't have any proof that it was him, apart from what we saw on the news.
The US began striking alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean in September, before expanding the operation to the Pacific. So far 83 people have been killed in at least 21 strikes, according to US statements.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says that the campaign is aimed at removing narco-terrorists from our hemisphere and securing the US from the drugs that are killing our people.
The Trump administration justifies them as a necessary self-defence measure aimed at saving American lives by stopping drugs from entering the US.
But the strikes have attracted condemnation in countries in the region and concern that they breach international law.
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has criticised the strikes, saying Colombian citizens were on board the boat hit on 15 September, and later claiming Mr Carranza was among those killed.
Previous statements from the White House have countered, looking forward to President Petro publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement.
Meanwhile, local fishermen like 81-year-old Juan Assis Tejeda express growing apprehension over their safety. With US drones surveilling the waters often, fear mounts that innocent fishing efforts may be misidentified as drug smuggling.
As tensions rise in the region, questions linger about the implications of US military actions and the potential for escalating conflict—pushing already vulnerable communities deeper into uncertainty.
