Santa Marta, Colombia - Alejandro Carranza's loved ones say he left home on Colombia's Caribbean coast to fish in open waters. Days later, he was dead – one of 32 supposed drug traffickers killed in US military strikes.

From Santa Marta, northern Colombia, Carranza's family is questioning White House claims that he was carrying narcotics aboard a small vessel targeted last month.

For his wife, Katerine Hernandez, he was "a good man" devoted to fishing.

"Why did they just take his life like that?" she asked during an interview Monday with AFP. She denied he had any link to drug trafficking.

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"The fishermen have the right to live. Why didn't they just detain them?"

Since the US began bombing boats in the Caribbean in August, critics have accused Donald Trump's administration of carrying out extrajudicial executions.

The White House and Pentagon have produced little evidence to back up their claims that those targeted were involved in trafficking.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, a critic of the US military presence in the Caribbean, has also claimed Carranza was innocent.

Petro said his crew suffered a mechanical failure at sea.

"The Colombian boat was adrift with a distress signal, its engine raised," Petro wrote Saturday on X. "He had no ties to drug trafficking. His daily activity was fishing."

However, Colombian media have reported that Carranza had a criminal record for stealing weapons in collusion with gangs. Prosecutors contacted by AFP refused to confirm or deny the reports.

The US government has released statements and images purporting to show strikes on at least seven boats allegedly carrying drugs, leaving 32 dead.