Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
Relatives and friends of Las Cuevas resident Chad “Charpo” Joseph say the US air strike off Venezuela that killed him was an act of wickedness.
President Donald Trump first broke the news about the strike in post on social media on Tuesday.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known route for smuggling,” Trump wrote.
The action was part of the United States’ continuing crackdown on what it says is the narco-trafficking activity emanating out of Venezuela. It was the fifth such exercise by the US military in the region since Trump ordered the military to take up strategic positions in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is deemed a narco-trafficker by the US, which still has a US$50 million bounty on his head.
In all, 27 people have been killed in five air strikes by the US, with Trump saying the success in the seas may now lead to a land attack on traffickers.
Yesterday, however, Las Cuevas residents learned Joseph, 26, was one of two Trinidadians who were on the vessel alongside four Venezuelans during Tuesday’s US strike. The other man was identified only as Samaroo.
In the seaside community yesterday, one of Joseph’s friends, who identified himself only as Kern, said he found the action by the US was wrong.
“What the US doing there, I think it is inhumane. All yuh blow the boat up, what evidence it have really is drugs and stuff like that? Leh we say is guns or human trafficking or anything, what is the closure that the family is having now?” he asked.
Kern, who spoke with Guardian Media while four other men were playing cards, said the atmosphere in the fishing community was one of sadness. Those with him under a shed questioned the legality of the bombing of the fishing vessel.
His concern about Joseph’s family getting closure was shared by Joseph’s mother Lenore Burnley, who said the second of her six children was not involved in drugs.
With no body to bury or cremate, Burnley said she is trusting in God for the closure she needs.
“I leave everything in God’s hand. He knows, he sees, and I does say he does give you what you can bear. He wouldn’t give you what you cannot bear. So, I leave everything to God.”
Burnley, like Kern, is not pleased with how her son was killed.
“I find it wrong because it have people will be innocent and they will still do and say otherwise. So, I can’t justify for other people, but it’s not right. The sea law is they supposed to stop the boat and intercept it, not blow it up like that.”
She added that the only evidence she has that her son was killed were reports from others.
Joseph’s grandmother, Christine Clement, said her grandson was living Venezuela for the past three months and had tried to return home before but that failed. The 69-year-old said it would have been better for him to remain in Venezuela and make a life there.
“The first time he was coming up, they shoot up the boat, he end up surviving. Some people take care of him. Two days ago, I ask his mother when he coming and she say something happen to the boat and he couldn’t come back again and had to turn back.”
Clement’s husband, like his daughter and wife, said he is trusting in God for justice and closure. But he minced no words when sharing his feelings towards the US’ action.
“I watch that as wickedness. Why... what you killing the people children for? It have nothing in that, it not supposed to be that way.”
Told that his grandson’s death is linked to his supposed involvement in drug trafficking, Clement said: “Nah, nah, nah! The boy is not no drug trafficker. They does make their lil run and come back.”
He said he was shocked by the attack, as his grandson had normally made such trips without incidents in the past.
After the first US air strike on September 2, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she had no sympathy for traffickers” and that the US military should “kill them all violently.”
Earlier this month, after the fourth attack, Persad-Bissessar said she remains in support of US strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers. Her support came after bilateral discussions on energy and national security in Washington, DC, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Calls and messages to Persad-Bissessar, Defence Minister Wayne Sturge and Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers all went unanswered.
