Families sue US over deadly boat strike off Venezuela coast

The families of two Trinidadian men, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, killed in a US strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela on October 14th, have filed a lawsuit against the US government in Boston's federal court. The lawsuit, filed under the Death on the High Seas Act, alleges wrongful death, arguing the men were not engaged in hostilities against the US. The US has conducted at least 36 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since September, resulting in over 120 deaths, claiming to target "narco-terrorists." The families assert the men were fishermen and farm workers returning to Trinidad and Tobago. The lawsuit follows a similar case filed by the family of a Colombian man with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Relatives of two Trinidadian men, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in a Boston Federal District Court on Tuesday against the U.S. government. The lawsuit challenges the legality of the Trump administration's policy of targeting vessels suspected of smuggling drugs at sea. The men disappeared in mid-October after leaving Venezuela by boat, and President Trump announced on October 14 that the military had attacked such a boat, killing six. The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, alleges the killings were unlawful murders. The Trump administration claims the attacks are lawful due to a declared armed conflict with drug cartels, a claim disputed by legal experts. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages, and the case will test the administration's justification for these extrajudicial killings.

A federal lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. government by the families of two Trinidadian men, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, killed in a U.S. military airstrike in the Caribbean Sea on October 14th. The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts under admiralty law, alleges the strike, which killed six people in total, was illegal and constitutes murder. The men were returning to Trinidad from Venezuela when their boat was targeted as part of the Trump administration's campaign against boats allegedly connected to cartels. The suit cites the Alien Torts Act and the Death on the High Seas Act, and is the first federal lawsuit connected to these attacks. Attorneys from the ACLU, Seton Hall University, and the Center for Constitutional Rights are representing the families.