More than four months after Ricky Joseph left his home in St Lucia to fish for tuna, ballyhoo, and snapper, his family remains suspended in raw grief. The 35-year-old fisherman was killed on 13 February in a US airstrike on a boat that the Trump administration claimed was being used to smuggle drugs. His partner, Lucille Charles, insists he had no criminal record and was never involved in any illicit activity.
Family Left Without Answers
Lucille Charles, who was asleep with their children when Joseph set out early that morning, grew increasingly worried when he failed to return. 'I started calling people and asking if they had seen him. I kept trying to reach him,' she said. The truth emerged in fragments: media reports, rumours of an explosion, and finally confirmation that his boat had been destroyed in a US military campaign against vessels allegedly transporting drugs to the US. Charles said she 'never knew him to be involved in anything like that.'
To date, more than 200 people are thought to have been killed in over 60 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, with the most recent attack on 21 June. Human rights organizations, national governments, and the UN have condemned the attacks as 'extrajudicial killings,' arguing that even if those on board were involved in smuggling—a claim Donald Trump has made without evidence—drug trafficking is not punishable by death under US or international law.
Media Coverage Waning
Analysis from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a US-based NGO, found that news coverage of the attacks is declining. 'It's so normalised now that it doesn't even get much attention when there is a new strike … I think people are getting somewhat numb to it,' said Adam Isacson, director for defence oversight at WOLA. After Joseph disappeared, police visited the family home to take statements and a photograph but provided little information. Although the family was told Joseph's remains had been found, they still do not have his body, leaving them without closure.
Brother's Grief and Questions
Joseph's brother Titus described the pain of seeing the charred remains of the boat. 'When I got close to that boat, I felt like my brother was still there. I felt his spirit. It hurt me badly. I started crying. I could not even really handle it,' he said. He questioned the evidence: 'If the boat was carrying so much cocaine and then it exploded and caught fire, where is the evidence? Where is the cocaine? I know Ricky. He was a fisherman. That was his life.'
Ricky Joseph is one of 13 victims of Trump's boat attacks identified in a joint investigation by 20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism. The report found that several victims showed no indication of involvement in drug trafficking. US Southern Command (Southcom), which oversees US military activities in Latin America, did not respond to a request for comment.
Boat Owner and Fishermen Afraid
Cameron Taliam, owner of the boat Joseph was on, said he did not know Joseph but knew the captain, known locally as 'Nafi.' 'I never knew him to be anything out of the way, no problems with the law … one of the nicest guys,' Taliam said. No official accounts of the attack have been given; Taliam pieced together reports from authorities and witnesses who described a US drone circling, hitting another vessel, then targeting his boat. Taliam said fishermen are afraid to take his boats out, asking him to change their colour from green and black because they feel targeted.
In St Lucia, Prime Minister Philip Pierre launched an investigation but said by May—three months after the attack—he had yet to receive further information from Washington. 'We cannot insist that the US gives us answers … And the sad thing is that we have had no further information on this matter,' Pierre said. Isacson noted that Caribbean governments may struggle to get answers because they lack interface with the US military conducting the strikes, and because the Trump administration wields political and economic tools against challengers. Taliam, however, did not blame the prime minister, stating, 'The world just needs to realise that we have a psycho on the loose … Trump is a psycho.'
