US strikes on boats in Caribbean fuel speculation over missing fishermen
Caribbean tensions rise as Venezuela accuses the US of killing innocent people in anti-drug operations
Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations has accused the US of killing innocent people in the Caribbean, citing local reports that two of the men in the latest boat bombing were Trinidadian fishermen.
“People from different countries - Colombia, Trinidad, etc - are suffering the effects of these massacres,” ambassador Samuel Moncada told reporters at the UN on Thursday, while holding up the cover story of local Trinidadian newspaper Guardian on the deaths.
The comments reflected Venezuela’s effort to rally international outcry over the US boat strikes, which the Trump administration has said were designed to disrupt a route used by “narcoterrorists” shipping drugs from Venezuela to the US.
The bombings have ignited debate over whether the US has the right to kill people in international waters without a legal process, and with little public information about who has been targeted.
In Trinidad and Tobago, people in one fishing village told the Guardian that two local men who were supposed to return from Venezuela never showed up and lost contact - leading them to conclude that they were killed by US bombs.