Colombia shares a border with Venezuela, and Petro has been vocal in his disapproval of the U.S. military's strikes against vessels in the Caribbean and the U.S.’ growing presence in those waters. The two Presidents have engaged in a bitter back-and-forth.

During a G7 meeting in Ontario, France's foreign minister said the deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean carried out by the United States since early September violate international law. Colombia, California's governor and the Washington Post also weighed in on the strikes on Tuesday — but Canada has been relatively silent on the U.

In interviews in villages on Venezuela's northeastern coast, from which some of the boats departed, residents and relatives said the dead men had been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists.