PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Trinidad and Tobago government Sunday reiterated that it has no concrete evidence that two of its nationals were killed when the United States military bombed a small vessel in international waters near the coast of Venezuela as part of its war on the illegal drugs trade in the region.
Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister, Sean Sobers, speaking at news conference on Sunday (CMC Photo)Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister, Sean Sobers, speaking at a news conference here, referred to the nationals as “missing” telling reporters “as far as we know these persons may very well be missing, we don’t know them to be dead.
‘We don’t know that they were actual persons on any boats that may have been destroyed by the US,” he said, adding “the relatives conducted funerals, I think one of them did, my heart goes out to them…and we wish them all the best.
“What we did say is that in lieu of any evidence that these persons have actually died that the best course of action would be to go to the police and file a missing person report,” he added.
Homeland Security Minister, Roger Alexander, a former senior police officer, had soon after the “incident, also cast doubt on the “innocence” of the two men, Richie Samaroo and Chad “Charpo” Joseph, not being involved in criminal activities.
“All I can say is that what the Homeland Ministry is treating with is really newspaper reports, because we would want to get as much information as we can to assist in any way that we can in terms of identifying persons and all of that,” Alexander said then.
The secretary of the non-governmental organization, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, Gary Aboud, had confirmed that two Trinidad and Tobago nationals were among the six people killed following one of United States military strikes .
“We would like to offer our condolences to the families, friends, children, wives of the deceased. Very, very sorry that they were murdered like this. I am very very sorry,” Aboud said on a radio broadcast with regards to the killings of Samaroo and Joseph.
Aboud said as a result of the killings, local fisherfolk are now afraid of going out to sea.
“People are terrified at the risk of being killed at sea. Personally I am very upset with our national position of bringing American warships and allowing them to bypass the judicial process.”
Sobers, who called the news conference to respond to allegations that the Trinidad and Tobago government has left students stranded in Jamaica, where Hurricane Melissa is due to strike on Monday as a powerful storm, said the acting Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin had said he had made officers available to go to the families of the “missing” men in order to conduct an investigation.
“But to say that these persons are dead and that they were on a boat and they were subject to some strike and the strike came from the (USS) Gravely, all of that is conjecture, which is misinformation,” Sobers said.
The USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, Sunday docked in Port-of-Spain until October 30 and Sobers reiterated an earlier government statement that it will be involved in a joint military training exercise with the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF).
Sobers said that the visit of the US military vessel is a follow up to the recently held Exercise Tradewinds a multinational, U.S. Southern Command-sponsored military exercise focused on Caribbean security, aiming to improve interoperability and readiness for maritime security, disaster response, and other threats.
“In this case, one of the things coming out of Tradewinds is that our TTDF naval capability may not have been at optimum operating capacity and so a request would have been made for assistance in that regard,” he said, adding that the US military officials will also be engaged in other activities, including providing “goodies” to pupils of a school here.
Sobers insisted that Trinidad and Tobago has no problems with Venezuela and that he has been in constant contact with the Venezuelan diplomat based here, Álvaro Sánchez Cordero, even as Port of Spain has not yet appointed an ambassador to the South American country following the April 28 general elections.
“Nobody has moved, nobody has gone and run anywhere. We don’t have an ambassador in Venezuela just yet,” he said, noting that the country also does not have an ambassador in various other countries including Panama, Brazil, China, Nigeria and South Africa.
“Our compliment of staff in Caracas, they have a very good working relationship with all arms of the government in Caracas,” he said, adding “but there is no issue, nobody has gone and run anywhere…everybody is in place, work is operating as per normal and there are no issues”.
Last month, President Donald Trump ramped up US military presence in the Caribbean Sea ordering an amphibious squadron to the southern Caribbean as part of his effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels.
A nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser have also been allocated to US Southern Command as part of the mission.
The United States military has carried out deadly air strikes in Caribbean waters over the past few weeks against what Washington alleges are Caracas-backed drug traffickers. The Venezuelan government denies the charge, accusing the administration of being a threat to the peace and security of the whole region.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has said that she is “happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” and that “the pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently”.
