PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Sep 13, CMC – A lawsuit against the United States government over the alleged deaths of two Trinidadian fishermen in a US military strike in the Caribbean Sea has been put on hold pending proceedings before the local court .
Nearly a year after Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo disappeared while attempting to return home from Venezuela, the Burnley v United States lawsuit is awaiting a local court ruling formally declaring the men dead and allowing their relatives to administer their estates.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) senior staff attorney Steven Watt told the Sunday Express newspaper that, following the filing of an amended complaint in June, the US government asked for the case to be stayed until the Trinidad and Tobago proceedings are completed.
Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley, and Samaroo’s sister, Sallycar Korasingh, are being represented by the ACLU and the Centre for Constitutional Rights.
The lawsuit alleges that Joseph and Samaroo were killed in one of 69 lethal US military strikes carried out in the Caribbean and Pacific since September 2025. The strikes have reportedly killed 230 people.
The families believe the two men were aboard a fishing vessel struck in the Caribbean Sea on October 14, 2025. US authorities said six people killed in that operation were “narcoterrorists” transporting drugs along a known trafficking route.
Relatives have strongly denied that Joseph or Samaroo was involved in drug trafficking, saying both men had been working on a farm in Venezuela before arranging transportation back to Trinidad.
The lawsuit seeks damages for their relatives, alleging the men were victims of extrajudicial killings and that their deaths amount to wrongful deaths under the US Death on the High Seas Act.
Burnley and Korasingh had been due to appear before the High Court in July seeking declarations that Joseph and Samaroo were legally dead. According to the amended complaint, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and Coast Guard were also summoned to provide updates on missing-person investigations.
Watt said a new hearing date has not yet been set.
He also criticised the Trinidad and Tobago government, saying the families had received little support apart from efforts by the protective services to investigate the disappearances.
Watt referred to previous statements by Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers that the government had no evidence the men were killed in a US strike.
He also criticised the government’s broader support for the US military operations, arguing that the strikes amount to unlawful extrajudicial killings without due process.
Watt said that even if people aboard targeted vessels were suspected of drug trafficking, they should be arrested, detained and investigated rather than killed.
He also dismissed suggestions that Joseph and Samaroo may simply be missing or may have remained in Venezuela, describing such claims as disrespectful to their families.
CMC/tt/kb/2026