<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/27/trump-military-boat-strikes-lawsuit>
"Civil rights attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the United States
government on Tuesday on behalf of the families of two men from a small fishing
village in Trinidad who were killed in a US military airstrike on a small boat
in the Caribbean Sea on 14 October.
The lawsuit, shared in advance with the
Guardian, says that Chad Joseph, 26,
and Rishi Samaroo, 41, both of Las Cuevas, Trinidad, were returning to Trinidad
from Venezuela when they and four other people were killed in the strike. It
was the fifth attack announced by the White House under Donald Trump’s campaign
against the small go-fast boats the administration claims are connected to
cartels and gangs.
The suit was filed four days after the administration announced the 36th such
boat attack on Friday, this one in the eastern Pacific. The death toll of the
boat strikes stands around at least 117 people dead so far.
The lawsuit said the strikes were illegal. “These premeditated and intentional
killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the lawsuit said. “Thus, they
were simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by
military officers in the chain of command.”
Legal scholars have said the strikes, launched against civilians in boats far
from the US, are violations of domestic and international law. The Trump
administration maintains they are legal, under a secret opinion written by the
justice department that argues the US is in an armed conflict with cartels and
that the laws of war apply to the strikes.
The suit over the October attack was filed in federal district court in
Massachusetts under admiralty law, which addresses maritime disputes and
violations, and was brought by Lenore Burnley, Chad’s mother, and Sallycar
Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister. It cites the
Alien Torts Act, which allows
foreign nationals to sue in US courts in certain cases, and the
Death on the
High Seas Act."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
