On October 14, 2025, a US military airstrike hit a small vessel in the Caribbean Sea that was headed toward Trinidad and Tobago. Six men on board were killed. The US government described the men as narco-terrorists. Two of them - Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41 - were from Las Cuevas, a fishing village on the north coast of Trinidad. Their families say the men had been fishing off the Venezuelan coast and doing farmwork in Venezuela, and were simply catching a ride home.
Joseph lived with his wife and their three children. Samaroo had a sister who would later become a plaintiff in what is now the first wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Trump administration over its boat strike campaign. The case, filed in January 2026 in federal court in Massachusetts by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, invokes both the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute. The families are not asking the court to adjudicate a geopolitical dispute. They are asking it to determine whether the United States murdered their relatives.
On March 13, 2026, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held its first hearing on the US boat strikes in Guatemala City. Legal experts from the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights presented evidence that the strikes violate both US and international law. By that date, the operation known as Southern Spear had killed at least 157 people. By March 25, that number had risen to at least 163 dead across 47 strikes on 48 vessels.
These numbers are not abstract to Trinbagonians. They are the backdrop against which thousands of fishermen decide, each morning, whether it is safe to go to work.
The Waters They Work In
The geography of the problem is simple enough to draw on a napkin. The Gulf of Paria, which separates Trinidad from the Venezuelan mainland, is roughly ten miles wide. The fishing grounds that Trinbagonian fishermen have worked for generations extend into waters that are now simultaneously patrolled by US warships conducting counter-narcotics operations, Venezuelan gunboats enforcing an increasingly hostile maritime posture, and pirate skiffs operating out of the Venezuelan coast.
In Cedros, on Trinidad's southern tip, fishermen launch into this contested space daily. Several have reported that Venezuelan patrols are violently repelling Trinbagonian vessels with increasing frequency - beatings and extortion have worsened, while their accessible fishing territory has shrunk and yields have dropped accordingly. One Cedros crew reported that masked men forced them to cut free their nets while still in Trinidad's territorial waters.
In Icacos, the situation is worse. The president of the Icacos Fishing Association has said that piracy attacks have been occurring nearly every week. The pattern is familiar - armed men speed toward a pirogue, demand the catch, the engine, or both, and sometimes kidnap the crew for ransom. One fisherman was reportedly held and released for $46,000. Most of the pirates are penniless fishermen from nearby Venezuela, where years of economic collapse have pushed many into banditry.
The response from the communities has been practical rather than strategic. Some fishermen have upgraded their pirogue engines from 75 to 200 horsepower, hoping to outrun the pirates. Others fish closer to shore, accepting smaller catches in exchange for a faster escape route to land. Others have stopped fishing at night entirely. In Las Cuevas, where Joseph and Samaroo lived, residents say many people have simply stopped going out to fish altogether. Fishermen there report hearing drones hovering overhead during night fishing trips - and once they hear a drone, they leave.
The cumulative effect is a fishing economy that is slowly being strangled. Fish catches in Trinidad and Tobago have declined by approximately 50% over the past decade. The causes are multiple and layered - overfishing, environmental degradation, climate change altering fish migration patterns, and the security crisis that is pushing fishermen away from the most productive grounds. But the security dimension is what has changed most dramatically since September 2025. A fisherman who previously worried about Venezuelan pirates now also has to worry about being misidentified as a narco-terrorist by the US military and struck by a missile.
The Coast Guard Gap
Defence Minister Wayne Sturge acknowledged the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard fleet "is not what it should be" when justifying the deployment of US military radar in Tobago. This admission deserves more scrutiny than it has received.
The Coast Guard operates two 58-metre Austal Cape-class patrol boats - TTS Port of Spain and TTS Scarborough - commissioned in November 2021, along with four Damen Stan Patrol coastal patrol vessels and a fleet of rigid-hulled inflatable boats. The force numbers over 1,500 officers and ratings. On paper, this is not a negligible capacity for a twin-island nation. In practice, the waters the Coast Guard must patrol extend across an Exclusive Economic Zone that includes some of the most contested maritime space in the Western Hemisphere.
When armed piracy occurs weekly in Icacos, when fishermen in Cedros report being beaten by Venezuelan patrols within Trinidad's own territorial waters, and when a fishing vessel can depart Buccoo and vanish without a trace, the adequacy question answers itself. The Coast Guard is not resourced for the threat environment that now exists.
The push for GPS tracking devices among Tobago fishermen underscores the gap. After two fishermen were rescued following four days missing at sea, community advocates called for wider GPS distribution. The fact that basic positioning equipment is still being discussed as aspirational, rather than standard issue, reveals how far the safety infrastructure lags behind the security reality.
The G/ATOR Question
Between November 2025 and March 2026, a US Marine Corps AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR radar system was stationed at ANR Robinson International Airport in Crown Point, Tobago. The system is designed to detect stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Prime Minister estimated it cost US$3 million per day to operate. A US military communications officer confirmed via Radio GTMO that the radar could be used in a potential US conflict with Venezuela.
On March 2, 2026, a 29-foot pirogue called Kampai departed Buccoo, Tobago, around 1:30 pm, bound for Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Two men - Alvin Morgan and Damien Reece of Santa Flora - were aboard, delivering the vessel on commission for a British national. The estimated arrival was between 5 and 6 pm that day. Neither the men nor the vessel has been seen since.
THA representative Keigon Denoon said the G/ATOR was "not the ideal system" to track the missing vessel. He could not confirm whether the radar was even used in the search. The Coast Guard coordinated with Grenada and St. Vincent, and the Air Guard conducted aerial searches, but no confirmed sighting has been made.
A radar system capable of detecting stealth aircraft was stationed on the same island where fishermen were vanishing - and no one can say whether it contributed to any search or rescue effort. The radar served its intended purpose, which was strategic surveillance. The fishermen's safety was not part of that purpose. The 108 US military personnel who operated the system departed Tobago around March 23. THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine confirmed that the road they were ostensibly helping to build was never completed.
What the Doral Charter Does Not Say
On March 7, 2026, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar stood to the right of President Trump at Trump National Doral in Miami and watched him sign the Doral Charter, establishing the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition. She received the pen used to sign the agreement. The charter commits 17 nations to a military alliance against cartels, with Trump declaring that the coalition would use "lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks once and for all."
Defence Minister Sturge had appealed to US Southern Command for more assets for Trinidad and Tobago during the Americas Counter-Cartel Conference two days earlier. The Prime Minister identified cybersecurity, forensics, and ballistics as key areas for US support and invited SOUTHCOM commander General Francis Donovan to visit.
The Prime Minister's own rhetoric has tracked the escalation. She praised a US strike on an alleged drug vessel with the words "kill them all violent." She has threatened "brutality" for criminals. Trinbagonian fishermen operate in the same waters where that violence is being celebrated, and two of them were killed by the forces the PM is publicly cheering.
What the Doral Charter does not contain is any provision for the protection of civilian fishermen who operate in the same waters where those lethal military operations take place. There is no framework for identifying and avoiding civilian vessels. There is no compensation mechanism for communities whose livelihoods are destroyed by the security environment that military operations intensify. There is no requirement for participating nations to ensure their own citizens are not caught in the crossfire.
The fishing crisis connects to every thread of Trinidad and Tobago's current sovereignty and security predicament. The US military conducts strikes in the waters. Venezuelan pirates and gunboats operate in the waters. The Coast Guard lacks the capacity to protect the fishermen who work those same waters daily. A US$3-million-per-day radar was deployed for strategic purposes that did not include finding missing pirogues. And the military alliance the country has now joined defines the problem exclusively in terms of cartels and drug trafficking, not in terms of the fishermen, their communities, or their survival.
The Human Arithmetic
The fishing communities along Trinidad and Tobago's coast - Cedros, Icacos, Las Cuevas, Moruga, and the villages along the north coast - depend on the catch for daily sustenance and income. Fish is a staple protein source. When catches decline, food prices rise and communities shift to less stable income sources. The economic damage extends outward in ways that are difficult to quantify but impossible to miss on the ground.
The families who filed suit in Massachusetts are seeking accountability for specific deaths. But their case stands for a broader failure. A maritime security strategy that addresses the interests of Trinbagonian fishermen - one that treats them as people to be protected rather than as collateral participants in a geopolitical contest - does not exist. The Doral Charter said nothing about them. Operation Southern Spear does not distinguish between them and its targets. The Venezuelan pirates rob them. The Coast Guard cannot adequately patrol their waters. And the radar that might have helped find two missing men in a 29-foot pirogue was deployed, operated, and removed without anyone being able to say whether it was used for that purpose even once.
One hundred and sixty-three people have been killed in US boat strikes since September 2025. Two of them were heading home to Las Cuevas. Their children still live there. Nobody's strategy includes keeping them safe.
Sources
- CBC Radio: "These Trinidadian fishermen were killed in a U.S. boat strike. Now their families are suing" (January 2026)
- NBC News: "First wrongful death lawsuit filed against Trump administration over drug boat strikes" (January 2026)
- ACLU: "Families of Trinidadian Men Killed in Illegal Boat Strike Sue Trump Administration" (January 2026)
- ACLU: "Legal Experts Underscore Illegality of U.S. Boat Strikes at Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Hearing" (March 2026)
- CNN: "Families of two men believed to have been killed in military strike on boat sue US government over 'unlawful' attacks" (January 2026)
- CNN: "A timeline of US strikes on boats that have killed at least 163" (updated March 2026)
- Al Jazeera: "Advocates push for major probe as US boat strikes in Latin America kill 157" (March 12, 2026)
- Al Jazeera: "Four killed in latest US attack on alleged drug-smuggling boat in Caribbean" (March 25, 2026)
- CBS News: "Amid face-off between U.S. and Venezuela, fishermen in Trinidad and Tobago fear for their lives and jobs" (October 2025)
- NPR: "How U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean have impacted Trinidad and Tobago" (October 2025)
- NPR: "U.S. boat strikes leave Colombian fishermen in fear, fail to curb cocaine flow" (January 2026)
- Fox News: "Relatives of Trinidadian nationals sue US over deadly Caribbean strike" (January 2026)
- Military Times: "US military strike near Venezuela disrupts life in fishing communities" (September 2025)
- France 24: "'This is the Caribbean, peace and love': Trinidadians on US boat strikes" (October 2025)
- Latin American Post: "Trinidad and Tobago Fishers Brave Gunboats, Pirates, and Politics to Feed Their Families" (2025)
- LatinNews / Business Standard: "US bombings fuel speculation over disappearances of fishermen in Trinidad" (October 2025)
- Trinidad Express: "Before they vanished, Chad and Rishi planned their return home" (2026)
- Trinidad Express: "Fishermen in fear" (2025)
- Trinidad Guardian: "Search continues for missing sailors en route to Union Island" (March 2026)
- CNC3: "No sightings yet in search for missing pirogue 'Kampai'" (March 2026)
- CNC3: Radar and fishermen coverage (March 2026)
- Newsday: "Cedros fisherfolk: We feel safe so far, but we can't handle war" (September 2025)
- Newsday: "Push for more Tobago fishermen to get GPS devices" (March 2025)
- InSight Crime: "Pirates Control Ocean Between Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago"
- Human Rights Watch: "Q&A: US Military Operations in the Caribbean, Pacific" (December 2025)
- Caribbean Life: "US troops leave Tobago after dismantling high-grade radar" (March 2026)
- Trinidad Guardian: "Trinidad and Tobago joins Americas Counter Cartel Coalition" (March 2026)
- Trinidad Guardian: "US military officer says radar in Tobago can be used in conflict with Venezuela" (December 2025)
- Wikipedia: "United States strikes on alleged drug traffickers during Operation Southern Spear"
- CIJN: "Trinidad and Tobago: On the Trail of Underlying Factors" (fishing catch decline data)