Colombian terrorist group the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels on Tuesday denied any involvement with a drug boat destroyed by US in the Caribbean.
"The National Liberation Army does not and will not have any boat connected with drug trafficking activities, neither in the Caribbean nor any other ocean, simply because it is prohibited" by the group's rules, the ELN said in a statement dated Monday but posted on social media on Tuesday.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said over the weekend that a vessel bombed by US forces in the Caribbean on Friday belonged to the ELN, though Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said it was the property of a "humble family."
Petro has objected to the U.S. military's strikes against vessels in the Caribbean, which have killed dozens of drug traffickers and inflamed tensions in the region.
Trump has accused Petro of being an "illegal drug leader" and threatened higher tariffs on Colombia and a cut to all US funding for the country.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta. Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb)