First-of-its kind suit filed by civil rights attorneys on behalf of families centers on 14 October strike in Caribbean Sea that killed six

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.

  • BillyClark@piefed.socialEnglish
    121·
    12 hours ago

    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.

    Let’s see about this “war.”

    War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups.

    Obviously, Wikipedia isn’t the absolute authority on defining what “war” means, but it does a great job at checking your common sense. Like, a war isn’t always between established states, but it’s also distinct from enforcing laws in places where they don’t enforce their own laws or where their own laws don’t suit you.

    Even if you assume that everything the Trump administration has said about these people is true, these boats were not carrying out anything like a military operation. Drug running isn’t a military operation. They’re not supplying front lines with drugs for battle.

    These people were accused civil offenses, not military operations, and we in the US do not give the death penalty for running drugs.

    And of course, the Trump administration lies as naturally as it breathes, so I have no reason to think the men from this article were running drugs in the first place. This is all just showing that even the lies Trump has told are not sufficient to justify the military actions he’s ordered.