Human Rights and International Law

The family of Alejandro Carranza filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, received Tuesday, alleging his Sept. 15 death off Colombia’s Caribbean coast was an extrajudicial killing in a U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat. The filing, the first formal human-rights challenge to the U.S. boat-strike campaign that has killed 80+ people since early September, seeks compensation and cites statements by U.S. officials; the U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the commission’s associated court, so any recommendations would be nonbinding.