A Pittsburgh lawyer who has spent his career working on international human rights cases now finds himself at the center of a first-of-its-kind challenge to the Trump administration’s continued campaign of bombing small boats it alleges are smuggling narcotics.

Daniel Kovalik filed a petition Monday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the family of Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina, who was killed Sept. 15 when the military bombed the boat he was sailing off the coast of Colombia.

The petition asserts Carranza, 42, was a fisherman and citizen of Colombia who was killed illegally.

“You want to deter this conduct,” Kovalik told TribLive on Wednesday. “You want to stop the killings.

“Part of the work is raising public awareness.”

The commission, part of the Organization of American States, exists to protect human rights in the Americas.

In a statement to TribLive, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, did not address the Carranza case specifically but said the strikes have targeted narcoterrorists.

“All of these decisive strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores, and the president will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country,” Kelly wrote.

The administration previously has defended the strikes, saying they are aimed at Venezuelan drug cartels.

Kovalik, 57, of Pittsburgh was retained by Carranza’s family after he was referred to them by Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The two men have been friends for more than 20 years and met when Petro was a Colombian senator and Kovalik sued Coca-Cola in Colombia for human rights abuses at their bottling plants, including using paramilitary militias to assassinate union leaders and activists.

Kovalik, at the time, was working as associate general counsel for the United Steelworkers, where he spent 20 years.

Petro reached out to him several weeks ago, and Kovalik traveled to meet Carranza’s family about a month ago.

“I think they’re very traumatized by what happened,” Kovalik said. “Their lives have been turned upside down.

“They seem very eager to pursue this case, and I think they’re very brave to do this.”

Petro, who has clashed repeatedly with the Trump administration, posted Nov. 8 on the social media platform X that Carranza came from a poor neighborhood of Santa Marta and was neither a terrorist nor drug trafficker.

On Oct. 18, Petro posted that the United States “committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters.”

“Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade, and his daily activity was fishing,” he posted. “The Colombian boat was adrift and displaying the distress signal due to having an outboard motor.

“We await explanations from the U.S. government.”

Long fight ahead

The complaint asserts violations of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, including the rights to life, equality and due process.

It lists Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the party responsible for Carranza’s death, with President Donald Trump having ratified the conduct.

“Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders despite the fact that he did not know the identity of those being targeted for these bombings and extra-judicial killings,” the petition said.

It asserts the victims, Carranza’s wife and four children, have no adequate remedies for redress in Colombia for the actions of the United States.

“Moreover, even if there were such remedies, the victims would not be able to safely pursue them given that they have been threatened by right-wing paramilitaries for just speaking out about the murder of Mr. Carranza.”

Since September, the Trump administration has authorized more than 20 such strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed at least 80 people.

Following a Washington Post investigation, Congress has said it will investigate whether the U.S. military acted appropriately when it ordered a second, follow-up strike on a boat that was bombed Sept. 2 that killed survivors from the first attack.

Kovalik said the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights likely will ask him to provide additional evidence to substantiate his claims and then will go the U.S. State Department to get a response.

Typically, the commission will then conduct its own investigation and potentially issue a recommendation for the U.S. to remedy the matter, Kovalik said.

The process, he continued, likely will take months, if not years.

‘Law on our side’

Kovalik has not ruled out filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government in an American court, although it is difficult to overcome immunity offered to government officials under the law, Kovalik said.

Starting at the commission, he continued, made sense.

“We definitely have the law on our side to file the Inter-American Commission claim,” he said.

Kovalik said he first became interested in human rights law when he visited Nicaragua at age 19 during the conflict in the 1980s between U.S.-backed Contra rebels and the leftist government.

In the case involving Carranza’s death, Kovalik said he recently was asked by a reporter whether the man was innocent.

“All of these people are innocent,” he said he answered. “Because where I come from, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”

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