Dead Fishermen Ruin The Narrative

When truth is inconvenient, this administration buries it; along with the innocent people its recklessness kills. Their lies crumble the moment real bodies wash up against their fake storyline.

Guest article by Michael Cohen. Remember to follow him on Substack for more by clicking here. Michael is now under 5K followers away from 500,000 on YouTube! Subscribe today for free here. Let’s do this!

Colombian President Gustavo Petro meeting with the family of Alejandro Carranza on November 8, 2025. via @petrogustavo

There is a level of stupidity in this administration so audacious it almost demands applause. Almost. This is the kind of stupidity where the leadership believes that if they just tell you to ignore your lying eyes and ears, you’ll nod politely and move along. “Trust us. I wasn’t there. I left the room to take a leak. Whatever.” Lies, lies, and more lies. And unlike cheap cologne, these lies don’t just fade; they stink up the room for years. Especially when those lies revolve around murder. Real murder.

Take the case of Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian fisherman. September 15, 2025: Carranza is going about his day, fishing in the Caribbean. A U.S. military strike hits his boat. He dies. Not in battle. Not defending the United States. Not in a declared war. He dies because the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, gave an order to bomb a boat without knowing who was on it. Yes, you read that correctly: Hegseth admitted he issued these orders despite having zero knowledge of the people he was targeting.

Now, some commentators, presumably armed with law books and polite language, call this a “war crime.” Cute. I call it murder 1. As far as I am aware, the country is not at war. There is no theater, no declaration, no enemy troops. Just Alejandro Carranza, a man doing what fishermen do, killed because the man running the Department of Defense—sorry, War—can’t be bothered with facts.

The timeline is almost comical if it weren’t so horrific. September 2, the first strike hits a boat. Some survive. Then, in a twist that would make a Bond villain nod in approval, a second strike finishes off the survivors. Two strikes. One boat. Dead people. Hegseth defends it by claiming he watched the first strike, left for meetings, didn’t see the second strike, and that the admiral “made the right call.” Because apparently, ignorance plus bravado equals competent leadership. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Fast forward to September 15: the strike that kills Alejandro Carranza and two others. The president proudly posted screenshots on Truth Social, insisting that the boats were smuggling drugs and that “big bags of cocaine and fentanyl” were floating around in the ocean. Never mind that the first-hand evidence for this claim is, at best, tenuous. What matters in this administration is the story, not the truth. The story sells well on social media; it doesn’t pay attention to bodies bobbing in the Caribbean.

Since then, the administration has launched more than 20 strikes against alleged drug boats, claiming—without solid evidence—that each one was trafficking drugs from Venezuela or Colombia. Over 80 people dead. Eight-zero. And the White House spins it like a routine law enforcement operation. Meanwhile, the families of the dead have nowhere to turn. Alejandro Carranza’s family filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The petition makes it clear: the U.S. government illegally killed him, and Colombian courts provide no adequate remedy. Even Colombian President Gustavo Petro called it murder, pointing out that Carranza had no ties to drugs and was simply fishing.

And yet, Hegseth insists the strikes are legal. The administration insists the operation is justified. The president insists everything is fine. The result: a reckless, incompetent leadership style that treats human life like a PowerPoint bullet point and facts like optional decorations. Lies pile on lies, and they keep doubling down. “Trust us. I wasn’t there. Whatever.” Except now, those words are attached to dead bodies and a growing international scandal.

This is the danger of putting faith in the wrong people. A secretary of war—if we want to cling to official titles—who confuses bravado with strategy, bluster with judgment, and reckless improvisation with policy. A president who seems perfectly willing to substitute social media posts for evidence and outrage for accountability. The consequences are not hypothetical. They are real. They are lethal. And they are coming home to roost.

Here’s the takeaway: the current administration’s reliance on lies and incompetence is not just embarrassing; it is murderous. Real people, with real lives, are paying the price while the men in charge posture for TV cameras. Alejandro Carranza, his family, and countless others are proof that in the Trump-Hegseth era, audacity and ignorance have deadly consequences. And until someone demands accountability, the line between political theater and murder will keep shrinking.

It’s tempting to laugh at the absurdity of it all. But don’t. Because this isn’t a comedy. It’s murder. First-degree. And it’s happening in plain sight.

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