US EditionFirst wrongful death lawsuit filed against Trump administration over drug boat strikes
- On Jan. 27, 2026, the families of Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo filed a wrongful-death suit in Massachusetts over the October 14 missile strike that killed six, including the two Trinidadian men.
- The Oct. 14 strike targeted a boat traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad and killed all six aboard, with the Trump administration framing it as part of a campaign since early September that hit three dozen boats and killed at least 125 people.
- The lawsuit contends the killings occurred outside armed conflict and invokes the Death on the High Seas Act and Alien Tort Statute, noting the Trinidadian government had no information linking the victims to illegal activities.
- The case could give courts a first look at the strikes' legal justification, as the lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union seeks only damages and the U.S. Defense Department declined to comment.
- Family members urged accountability; Baher Azmy called the killings `lawless,' and Sallycar Korasingh said, `If the U.S. government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him.
189 Articles
189 Articles
The Needle: Families Sue Trump Over Boat Murders, Inhumane Conditions at Immigration Holding Center in Baltimore, And Another Kennedy Center Cancellation
Murder, they wrote: Families of two men killed in a U.S. military strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea are suing the Trump administration in federal court. Rishi Samaroo, 41, and Chad Joseph, 26, were returning to Trinidad from Venezuela when they and four other people were killed in the fifth attack ordered by convicted felon and President Donald Trump on boats he claims are carrying drugs. The lawsuit says the strikes are illegal, and t…
Relatives of Civilians Killed in US Caribbean Missile Strikes Sue Trump Administration
Relatives of two Trinidadian citizens killed in a US missile strike in the Caribbean have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Trump administration. This litigation, the first of its kind, seeks justice for the brutality of the unauthorized military campaign that, under the pretext of a “war on drugs,” has claimed more than 120 lives in the Pacific and the Caribbean since last September. The lawsuit asserts that Chad Joseph and Rishi Samar…
Families of two murdered Trinidadians sue for illegal killing. The US government considers the attacks to be justified. Legal experts doubt. An analysis.
Jyllands-Posten
PolitikenFamily members of two men killed in a US missile strike on a boat near Venezuela in October have sued US President Donald Trump's administration. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday...
For months, the U.S. military in the Caribbean and Pacific has sunk alleged smuggler boats. In a first lawsuit, it is now said that two of the killed were fishermen.
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