{"id":220228,"date":"2025-10-17T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220228\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:02:08","slug":"trump-is-killing-poor-people-caribbean-village-mourns-victim-of-us-strike-trinidad-and-tobago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220228\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Trump is killing poor people\u2019: Caribbean village mourns victim of US strike | Trinidad and Tobago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relatives of two men from Trinidad believed to have been killed in a US military<\/a> strike on a boat in the Caribbean<\/a> have accused Donald Trump<\/a> of \u201ckilling poor people\u201d without due process and are demanding justice.<\/p>\n

Chad \u201cCharpo\u201d 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 <\/a>on a boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump has described the six killed as \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d, claiming that \u201cintelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics\u201d. But speaking to the Guardian at a wake for the two men, Joseph\u2019s cousin La Toya, 42, said he was denied the basic right to due process and accused the Trinidad and Tobago<\/a> government of giving up its sovereignty to the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody have a right to due process and due process wasn\u2019t given. It don\u2019t look like we running under our government no more when it comes to the waters \u2013 that\u2019s not Trinidad waters,\u201d she said, questioning why US officials decided to destroy the boat rather than detain and question its occupants.<\/p>\n

At a wake for the two men late on Thursday, family and community members said they felt betrayed by their own government and at the mercy of a Trump administration<\/a> that has been given unfettered access to their waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to know why Donald Trump<\/a> killing poor people just so,\u201d Joseph\u2019s uncle, known only as \u201cDollars\u201d, said. \u201cJust because he going after the people gas and their oil. He going after people riches and killing poor people children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messiah Burnley, a cousin of Chad Joseph, sits outside the home Joseph shared with his grandparents in Las Cuevas, Trinidad and Tobago. Photograph: Andrea de Silva\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Lynette Burnley, Joseph\u2019s aunt, said the family had received no communication from the Trinidad government since reports of her nephew\u2019s death first emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat make me feel a kind of way too,\u201d Burnley said. \u201cPeople coming from international, all over, [calling us but] not right here in Trinidad. They real poor, they let us down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Trinidad\u2019s prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has previously expressed strong support for a US military<\/a> operation in the region, avoided questions from reporters about the US airstrike that is thought to have killed Joseph and Samaroo.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust imagine, the prime minister \u2026 They asking she about this. She never even make a statement,\u201d Burnley said, adding that it felt as if Joseph and Samaroo were being treated like \u201cthey did not exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Joseph\u2019s grandmother Christine Clement said she was very close to him. He moved from his mother\u2019s home in another fishing village, Matelot, and came to live with her.<\/p>\n

She said the only support she had had was from the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody hurt, because in this community everybody is family and friends and everybody close \u2026 Our own police service, nobody come and ask a question. There\u2019s no investigation, nothing,\u201d she said, adding she was trying to stay calm and monitor her blood pressure.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Boats are anchored in the bay from where Chad Joseph and another man departed for Venezuela in Las Cuevas. Photograph: Andrea de Silva\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Less is known in the village about Samaroo, who was released from prison in 2021 after serving time for his role in a 2009 murder of a street vendor. Most only knew him by his last name and said he would often try to help out in any way he could with odd jobs and mechanics, but especially animals.<\/p>\n

With no body to bury, family and friends are planning a memorial mass. \u201cI talked to the priest and I let him know what went on,\u201d Burnley said. \u201cNext week Wednesday will be the nine days. He coming home here to keep a mass, five o\u2019clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, US media reported another strike on a boat in the Caribbean, from which there reportedly are survivors. At least 27 people have been killed in previous attacks off the coast of Venezuela, which the Trump administration<\/a> says are necessary to protect the United States from narcotics smuggled from Venezuela, but which UN experts and human rights groups have described as extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n

Last month, fishers in Las Cuevas told the Guardian<\/a> that they were afraid of being caught in the crossfire amid Trump\u2019s \u201cwar on drugs\u201d in the region. Instead of their usual route, heading west toward Venezuela, fishers said they now head east, staying close to the coast of Trinidad. On Thursday, villagers told the Guardian that the fishers now don\u2019t want to go out at all.<\/p>\n

Cornell Clement, the grandfather of Chad Joseph. Photograph: Kejan Haynes<\/p>\n

Activist David Abdulah, speaking for the regional executive committee for the Assembly of Caribbean<\/a> People, stood outside the US embassy in Port of Spain on Thursday declaring that the Caribbean must remain a \u201czone of peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alluding to Washington\u2019s history of interference in Haiti and Latin America, and its invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983, Abdulah warned that there was an imminent threat to the region\u2019s sovereignty and peace.<\/p>\n

Launching a regional declaration condemning renewed US militarisation, he said: \u201cThe people of the Caribbean must stand firm against any attempt to drag us into war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juanita Goebertus Estrada, Americas<\/a> director at Human Rights Watch said the attacks violated international human rights law and amounted to extrajudicial executions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago or with alleged criminal groups involved. Under human rights law standards, officials engaging in law enforcement must seek to minimize injury and preserve human life. They may use lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect against an imminent threat of death or serious injury.<\/p>\n

\u201dIn the different recent strikes conducted in the Caribbean, the US authorities made no effort to minimize harm and have not sought to demonstrate that the individuals aboard vessels posed any imminent threat to life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Relatives of two men from Trinidad believed to have been killed in a US military strike on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-220228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}