Families Launch Legal Action Over Fatal US Military Boat Strikes
Civil rights attorneys have initiated a groundbreaking federal lawsuit against the United States government, representing the families of two men from Trinidad who were killed in a US military airstrike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea. The legal action, filed on Tuesday, centres on the 14 October strike that resulted in six fatalities.
Details of the Incident and Legal Challenge
The lawsuit, shared in advance with the Guardian, names Chad Joseph, aged 26, and Rishi Samaroo, aged 41, both residents of Las Cuevas, Trinidad. According to the filing, the men were returning to Trinidad from Venezuela when they, along with four other individuals, were killed in the strike. This incident represents the fifth attack announced by the White House under Donald Trump's campaign targeting what the administration describes as small go-fast boats allegedly connected to cartels and gangs.
The legal action was filed just four days after the administration announced its 36th such boat attack, this time in the eastern Pacific. The cumulative death toll from these strikes is estimated to be at least 117 people.
Legal Arguments and Precedents
The lawsuit contends that the strikes are illegal, stating: "These killings patently lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command." Legal scholars have supported this view, arguing that targeting civilians in boats far from US shores violates both domestic and international law.
However, the Trump administration maintains the legality of these actions, relying on a secret opinion from the justice department. This opinion asserts that the US is engaged in an armed conflict with cartels, thereby applying the laws of war to the strikes.
Plaintiffs and Legal Framework
The suit was filed in federal district court in Massachusetts under admiralty law, which governs maritime disputes and violations. The plaintiffs are Lenore Burnley, mother of Chad Joseph, and Sallycar Korasingh, sister of Rishi Samaroo. The lawsuit cites the Alien Torts Act, permitting foreign nationals to sue in US courts under specific circumstances, and the Death on the High Seas Act.
In a separate development in December, the family of Alejandro Carranza Medina, a Colombian national killed in another strike, filed a human rights complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States.
Unprecedented Nature of the Case
This federal lawsuit is the first of its kind connected to these attacks, with the families represented by attorneys from the ACLU, Seton Hall University, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Jonathan Hafetz of Seton Hall law school emphasised the unprecedented nature of the case, stating: "This is uncharted water. Never before in the country's history has the government asserted this type of power. This is a clear example of unlawful killing by the United States. The US is assuming the prerogative to kill victims in international waters."
In a press release, Sallycar Korasingh expressed her grief and outrage: "If the U.S. government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him."
Context and Administration's Response
Little specific information is available about the attack that killed Samaroo and Joseph. On the day of the strike, Donald Trump posted a video on social media showing a small open vessel suddenly engulfed in flames. He wrote: "Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO)."
Trump claimed that "six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike," but provided no details regarding the alleged affiliation of the group, nor any evidence of drugs or weapons on board. The lawsuit challenges these assertions, seeking accountability and justice for the victims and their families.
