Two men from Trinidad and Tobago have been identified by family and neighbours as among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela. The strike occurred in international waters near the Venezuelan coast, close to Trinidad. Donald Trump claimed without evidence that the vessel was carrying narcotics and was linked to illicit narcoterrorist networks.
The deceased have been named as Chad 'Charpo' Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, a former prisoner released in 2021 after serving time for a 2009 murder. Joseph's mother, Lenore Burnley, denied her son was involved in drugs and lamented the lack of a body for burial. She questioned the US military's actions, stating that maritime law requires stopping and intercepting a boat, not destroying it.
Joseph's grandmother, Christine Clement, called the attack 'wickedness'. Trinidad police are still confirming whether Trinidadians were among the dead. The incident has heightened fears among local fishermen, who have altered their routes to avoid the area amid Trump's 'war on drugs'.
Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, expressed strong support for the US strike, saying she had 'no sympathy for traffickers' and that the US military should 'kill them all violently'. However, other Caribbean leaders, including Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Gaston Browne, have described the US military activity as a threat to regional peace.
In response, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered large-scale military exercises and mobilised the military, police, and civilian militia to defend the country. The US has reportedly expanded its mission with elite special operations aviation unit helicopters conducting training exercises in the region.
