‘Trump is killing poor people’: Caribbean village mourns victim of US strike | Trinidad and Tobago

Relatives of two Trinidadian men believed to have been killed in a US military strike on a boat in the Caribbean have accused Donald Trump of “killing poor people” without due process and are demanding justice.

Chad “Charpo” Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, from the fishing village of Las Cuevas in northern Trinidad, are thought to be among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela.

Trump described the six killed as “narco terrorists” and claimed that “intelligence confirmed the ship was smuggling drugs.” But speaking to the Guardian at the funeral of the two men, Joseph’s cousin La Toya, 42, said he had been denied basic due process and accused the Trinidad and Tobago government of ceding its sovereignty to the United States.

“Everyone has the right to due process, and due process has not been provided. It doesn’t seem like we are operating under our government anymore when it comes to the waters — this is not Trinidadian waters,” he said, questioning why U.S. officials decided to destroy the boat rather than detain it and interrogate its contents.

At the two men’s funeral service late Thursday, family and community members said they felt betrayed by their own government and at the mercy of the Trump administration, which was given unfettered access to its own waters.

“I want to know why Donald Trump is killing poor people,” said Joseph’s uncle, known only as “Dollar.” “Just because he goes after people’s gas and oil. He goes after people’s wealth and kills poor people’s children.”

Joseph’s aunt, Lynette Burnley, said the family had heard nothing from the Trinidad government since news of her nephew’s death first emerged.

“It kind of gave me a feeling too,” Burnley said. “People from international countries are everywhere, [calling us but] not here in Trinidad. They are really poor, they let us down.”

On Thursday, Trinidad’s prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who had previously expressed strong support for a US military operation in the region, dodged questions from reporters about the US airstrike thought to have killed Joseph and Samaroo.

Burnley said, “Think about it, prime minister… They are asking him this. He didn’t even make a statement,” adding that he felt Joseph and Samaroo were treated as if “they didn’t exist.”

Joseph’s grandmother, Christine Clement, said he was very close to him. He moved from his mother’s house in Matelot, another fishing village, and came to live with her.

He said the only support he received was from the public.

“Everyone is hurt, because in this society, everyone is family, everyone is a friend, and everyone is close to each other… In our police department, no one comes and asks questions. There is no investigation, there is nothing,” he said, adding that he was trying to stay calm and monitor his blood pressure.

Less is known in the village about Samaroo, who was released from prison in 2021 after being sentenced to prison for his role in the murder of a street vendor in 2009. Most people knew him only by his last name, and he said he would try to help as much as he could with odd jobs and mechanical matters, especially with animals.

With no body to bury, family and friends are planning a memorial service. “I spoke to the priest and told him what was going on,” Burnley said. “Next week Wednesday will be the ninth day. He comes here for mass at five o’clock.”

On Thursday, US media reported another attack on a boat in the Caribbean and that survivors were found. At least 27 people were killed in previous attacks off the coast of Venezuela, which the Trump administration said were necessary to protect the United States from narcotics smuggled from Venezuela, but which UN experts and human rights groups described as extrajudicial killings.

Last month fishermen in Las Cuevas told the Guardian they feared being caught in the crossfire during Trump’s “war on drugs” in the region. Fishermen said that instead of their usual route west to Venezuela, they are now heading east, staying close to the coast of Trinidad. On Thursday villagers told the Guardian that the fishermen no longer wanted to go out at all.

Activist David Abdulah, speaking on behalf of the regional executive committee of the Assembly of the Caribbean People, stood outside the US embassy in Port of Spain on Thursday and declared that the Caribbean should remain a “zone of peace.”

Citing Washington’s history of intervention in Haiti and Latin America, as well as its 1983 invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada, Abdulah warned of an imminent threat to the region’s sovereignty and peace.

He issued a regional declaration condemning US remilitarization, saying: “The people of the Caribbean must stand firm against any attempt to drag us into war.”

Juanita Goebertus Estrada, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said the attacks violated international human rights law and amounted to extrajudicial killings.

“The United States is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, or the criminal groups allegedly involved. Under human rights law standards, law enforcement officials must seek to minimize injuries and protect human life. They may use lethal force only when absolutely unavoidable to protect against an imminent threat of death or serious injury.”

“In separate recent attacks in the Caribbean, U.S. officials made no effort to minimize damage and did not attempt to demonstrate that persons on board posed any imminent threat to life,” he said.