Families of Trinidadian men killed in US boat strike demand accountability

Key points

• Families of Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo demand US accountability on the first anniversary of their deaths in an October 14, 2025 boat strike.
• The families' wrongful death lawsuit, supported by the ACLU, is being heard in a Boston federal court.
• The US boat strike campaign has killed at least 239 people since September 2025, with critics calling it extrajudicial killings.

The families of two Trinidadian men, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, have marked the one-year anniversary of their disappearance by calling for accountability from the United States. The men are believed to have been killed in a US military boat strike on October 14, 2025, as part of a campaign targeting small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that the US says were transporting narco-terrorists.

The families, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit in a Massachusetts federal court. They argue that Joseph and Samaroo were fishermen and farm workers, not drug traffickers.

Families demand justice

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the families remembered the two men. Joseph's mother, Lenore Burnley, said, "The last year has been devastating without Chad in our lives. Chad was the heart of our family." Samaroo's youngest sister, Sallycar Korasingh, said, "Not a day goes by when our family doesn't think about our brother Rishi."

The attack on October 14, 2025, killed four other people when a missile struck a vessel returning to Trinidad and Tobago from Venezuela. The families said Samaroo and Joseph had been working in Venezuela to support their families and called home two days before the trip. They were never heard from again.

The last year has been devastating without Chad in our lives. Chad was the heart of our family.

— Lenore Burnley

Broader campaign and legal action

The US boat strike campaign, launched under President Donald Trump, has killed at least 239 people since September 2025. The US government has provided little evidence to support its claims that those on board were trafficking drugs and has not publicly identified the victims. In several cases, relatives from Colombia to Ecuador to Trinidad and Tobago have said their loved ones were fishermen with no connection to the drug trade.

Separately, the family of Colombian fisherman Alejandro Carranza has filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, accusing the Trump administration of violating his right to life in a September 15, 2025, bombing. Legal scholars note that even if those killed were involved in criminal activity, the strikes would still amount to extrajudicial killings under international law. The ACLU's Jeff Stein said, "These illegal strikes at sea have devastated countless families, terrified communities, and made us all less safe."