Fishermen in eastern Caribbean fear for their lives after U.S. strike

Body

Fishermen in the eastern Caribbean said they fear for their safety after a U.S. strike killed three people aboard a boat the U.S. government described as a suspected drug vessel. The strike prompted calls for new precautions at sea and renewed debate across the region over how much evidence supports lethal force operations in Caribbean waters.

Winsbert Harry, president of the National Fisherfolk Organization in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, told SVG-TV late Tuesday that he was concerned about fishermen’s safety across the Caribbean. He said the timing of the incident comes as the eastern Caribbean prepares for the peak of tuna season, when many fishermen depend on catches for their livelihoods.

Harry urged fishermen to take practical steps at sea, including clearly identifying their boats and constantly monitoring surrounding vessels, especially when they are at high sea. He also warned that visibility is lowest during pre-dawn hours, when many fishermen typically set out, and he said “You never know what could happen,” adding that he and others are fearful about going out.

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force said Wednesday that it is aware of the ongoing concerns and asked fishermen to immediately report any “debris, unusual sightings or unexplained activity.” The police statement said the sea is a livelihood and that uncertainty there is felt deeply by many Vincentians.

St. Lucian Prime Minister Phillip J. Pierre said Monday that his government was actively working through diplomatic and security channels to verify the facts after confirming that “people lost their lives.” Pierre declined further comment, including whether at least one of the victims was a fisherman from St. Lucia.

Another former St. Vincent prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, criticized the strike during his radio show Monday and called on the archipelago’s current leader to make a public statement. Speaking on Star FM, Gonsalves said, “Even if these persons were involved in drug trafficking, you can’t just kill them,” adding, “Everybody is innocent until proven guilty,” and, “You cannot be judge, jury and executioner without giving people an opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law.”

The U.S. government announced that it had carried out strikes on three boats, including one in the Caribbean Sea, killing three people, and officials did not provide evidence that the boats were ferrying drugs. The strikes that began in September have killed at least 145 people, according to the AP report, and have rankled some Caribbean officials where some of the attacks have taken place.

The report also noted that one of those earlier strikes killed two fishermen from Trinidad and Tobago in mid-October, and that the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts later announced relatives of those victims were suing the U.S. government “for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing.” The ACLU said the victims were 26-year-old Chad Joseph and 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo, and it quoted Samaroo’s sister, Sallycar Korasingh, saying, “If the U.S. government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged and detained him, not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”

In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as necessary to stop drug trafficking. Meanwhile, critics have questioned the legality of the strikes; Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a recent statement that it is “absurd and dangerous for any state to just unilaterally proclaim that a ‘war’ exists in order to deploy lethal military force,” and called the killings “lawless” while arguing that “we need a court of law to proclaim what is true and constrain what is lawless.”