COLOMBIAN President Gustavo Petro hit out at international human rights organisations on Saturday for their silence over United States aggression in the Caribbean.

Since September 2 the US has carried out at least 14 air attacks targeting alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea (eight) and eastern Pacific Ocean (six), killing at least 61 civilians.

Writing on social media, Mr Petro wrote: “If the Trump administration is violating international law by attacking people with an immense disproportionate amount of force in the Caribbean Sea — that is, extrajudicial executions as the UN says — why doesn’t the OAS (Organisation of American States) meet to study this problem of systematic human rights violations in the Caribbean?”

“Why are there no precautionary measures from the Human Rights Commission in Washington? Is it fear of being treated the same in the American context? What explains the silence of progressives and governments?” President Petro asked.

He asked: “Is the American Convention on Human Rights, signed by the US, unilateral? Does it only serve against Latin American and Caribbean states and is it not American?

“The legitimacy of the OAS and the Inter-American Human Rights System created in the 1970s is being defined.”

Mr Petro added: “Either we are a continent of sovereign nations, or we are a continent colonised by an empire.”