Gonsalves criticises US military strikes after reported Caribbean deaths

St Vincent and the Grenadines Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves has criticised ongoing United States military action against alleged illegal drug traffickers following reports that three people, believed to be St Lucian nationals, were killed in the latest strike in the Caribbean Sea.

Gonsalves, an attorney, said that while drug trafficking does not carry the death penalty in the United States or the Caribbean, any punishment must be imposed through the courts.

“You just cannot execute them at sea. That is a species of barbarism contrary to American values, contrary to international law, and contrary to American jurisprudence, and I am pleading with our American friends to revisit this matter.

“This is all part and parcel of what is called the Dunroe Doctrine…a political ideological doctrine which has to be subjected to international law and your own domestic law. If we can’t say that in the Caribbean, we may as well declare that we are slaves of the United States of America,’ said Gonsalves.

Earlier this week, St Lucia Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre said his administration is “actively engaging through established diplomatic and security channels” after confirming that “people lost their lives” in the latest United States military strike against what Washington says were illegal drug dealers in the Caribbean Sea.

“I can confirm that people lost their lives, and to the best of my knowledge, I have no official notification on the circumstances surrounding their deaths,” Pierre told reporters, repeating the statement when asked whether those killed were St Lucians.

“The issue is being investigated by the powers responsible for investigations,” he said.

Last Friday, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said that under the direction of its commander, General Francis L. Donovan, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal strike on a vessel said to be operated by designated terrorist organisations.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Three narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed,” SOUTHCOM said in a statement.

SOUTHCOM later released video footage appearing to show a missile strike on the vessel, which exploded and was destroyed.

On Saturday, the St Vincent Times reported that remnants of an alleged drug boat destroyed in the strike had surfaced off Canouan in the Grenadines. Fishermen who discovered the debris said no bodies were seen in the area.

Last month, families of two Trinidadian men killed in a similar US strike filed a lawsuit against the US government. The claim was submitted in a Boston federal court on behalf of relatives of Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, who were among six men killed off the coast of Venezuela on October 14 last year.

Gonsalves, who also questioned what he described as the silence of the St Vincent and the Grenadines government on the issue, said he had been advised that two vessels destroyed in recent operations were found off the coast of Canouan and Owia.

“This government hasn’t said anything yet about these matters. At least not as far as I know before I came on,” he told listeners to his weekly radio programme.

He also referenced legal arguments advanced by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in its lawsuit concerning the Trinidad and Tobago nationals.

“I just want that to sink in. So even if these persons involved in drug trafficking, you just can’t kill them. There is something called international law and something called domestic law, and you have to have processes.

“Everybody is innocent until they are proven guilty. You can’t just say that these people are drug traffickers. You have no evidence that this is so. You have not found any drugs, and even if you find drugs in the waters after you blow up the vessel, you can’t be judge, jury, and executioner without giving the persons an opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law.

“That is what law is a bout,” said Gonsalves, adding that the matter should be handled through law enforcement.

“You arrest them, you charge them, you bring them to a court of law, you work with neighbouring states…but you have to give people the full canopy of their rights. They are human beings, you just can’t kill them like that,” Gonsalves added.