Abdulah: US strike that allegedly killed Trinis is ‘war crime’

News Mya Quamie 3 Hrs Ago

David Abdullah, an executive member, Assembly of Caribbean People, talks to the media at the Queen's Park Savannah, opposite the US Embassy, in Port of Spain on October 16 - Photo by Angelo Marcelle

The alleged killing of two Trinidadians in the most recent US strike on a vessel said to be carrying narcotics has been strongly condemned by the regional executive of the Alliance of Caribbean People.

At a media conference at the Queen's Park Savannah, opposite the US embassy, in Port of Spain, on October 16, David Abdulah, a member of the executive, said, "We don’t know what they were doing, but, regardless, nobody has the right to engage in extrajudicial killings. Even in open warfare between two states, you can capture enemy soldiers but you cannot line them up on a wall and execute them.”

The Trinidadian men are said to be among six killed in a strike off the coast of Venezuela in international waters on October 14. US President Donald Trump said the vessel was affiliated with a designated terrorist organisation operating in the Caribbean.

Abdulah said, “It is a war crime according to the Geneva Convention. Even if they were engaged in criminal activity, we don’t know, because dead men tell no tales, and there’s no evidence.

“Trump thinks that because he can deploy 10,000 military personnel, bombers, fighter jets, naval ships, a nuclear submarine, drones and guided missiles, that he has the right to kill people in this world. And we say no, the Caribbean must remain a zone of peace “

He called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to withdraw statements that the continued strikes are an attack on narco trafficking.

“Because if there is a military strike against Venezuela, if there is an attempt to assassinate president Maduro, as has been reported and Trump has not denied, then the whole narrative of this being about narco trafficking is shown to be a lie – that story has collapsed and we therefore cannot US military intervention in this region.”

In September 2024, the US state department denied allegations the CIA was involved in an alleged assassination plot against Maduro.