More than four months after Ricky Joseph left his home on the Caribbean island of St Lucia to fish for tuna, ballyhoo and snapper, his family remains suspended in raw grief, seeking answers about his death. Joseph, 35, was killed on 13 February in a US airstrike on a boat that the Trump administration claimed was being used to smuggle drugs. His partner, Lucille Charles, said he had no criminal record and was not involved in any illicit activity.
Family left in the dark
Charles, who was asleep with their children when Joseph set out to sea, grew increasingly worried when he failed to return. “I started calling people and asking if they had seen him. I kept trying to reach him,” she said. “I sent messages. I kept telling myself he would come back, but then I began to feel that something had happened to him.” The truth emerged through media reports and rumours of an explosion. The police visited the family home to take statements and collect a photograph but provided little information. Although the family was told Joseph’s remains had been found, they have not received his body, leaving them without closure.
Strikes condemned as extrajudicial killings
To date, more than 200 people are thought to have been killed in over 60 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, with the latest occurring on 21 June. Human rights organizations, national governments, and the UN have condemned the attacks as “extrajudicial killings,” arguing that even if individuals on the boats were involved in smuggling, drug trafficking is not an offence punishable by death under US or international law. Adam Isacson, director for defence oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), noted that media coverage of the attacks is waning. “It’s so normalised now that it doesn’t even get much attention when there is a new strike … I think people are getting somewhat numb to it,” he said.
Brother’s pain and unanswered questions
Joseph’s brother, Titus, described the pain of seeing the charred remains of the boat. “When I got close to that boat, I felt like my brother was still there. I felt his spirit. It hurt me badly. I started crying. I could not even really handle it,” he said. He questioned the lack of evidence: “If the boat was carrying so much cocaine and then it exploded and caught fire, where is the evidence? Where is the cocaine? That is what I want to know. I know Ricky. He was a fisherman. That was his life.”
Joint investigation identifies victims
Ricky Joseph was one of 13 people killed in Trump’s boat attacks to be identified in a joint investigation by 20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism. The report found that several victims showed no indication of involvement in drug trafficking. US Southern Command (Southcom), which oversees US military activities in Latin America, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boat owner and fishers afraid
Cameron Taliam, owner of the boat Joseph was on, said he did not know Joseph but knew the captain, known locally as “Nafi.” “I never knew him to be anything out of the way, no problems with the law … one of the nicest guys,” Taliam said. No official accounts of the attack, which occurred in waters of St Vincent and the Grenadines, have been given. Taliam pieced together reports from authorities and witnesses who described a US drone circling, hitting another vessel, then approaching his boat. He said fishers are afraid to take his boats out, asking him to change the colour from green and black because they feel targeted.
St Lucia’s prime minister seeks answers
St Lucia’s prime minister, Philip Pierre, launched an investigation but said as of May he had yet to receive further information from Washington. “We cannot insist that the US gives us answers … And the sad thing is that we have had no further information on this matter,” Pierre said. Isacson suggested Caribbean governments struggle to get answers partly because they may not “have much interface with the part of the US government” carrying out the attacks, and because the Trump administration wields political and economic tools against challengers. Taliam did not blame Pierre, saying, “He wasn’t the one who did anything to my boat. The world just needs to realise that we have a psycho on the loose … Trump is a psycho.”
