The possible deaths of two St Lucians in controversial strikes by the US navy in the southern Caribbean this year was a major issue at yesterday’s CARICOM Heads press conference and St Lucia PM Philip J Pierre was unable to provide answers on the case.
The issue dominated part of the closing press conference following the 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in St. Lucia after an Al Jazeera journalist questioned regional leaders about the reported disappearance of St. Lucians Ricky Joseph and Nafi Williams.
The journalist said an investigation by the news organisation had concluded that “all evidence points toward their deaths being caused by a US boat strike” on February 13 and cited experts who had characterised the incident as an extra-judicial killing.
He asked St. Lucia’s PM what justice should look like for the families and whether the United States enjoyed impunity to kill citizens in Caribbean territories.
Pierre said his government remained deeply concerned about the disappearance of the two men but stressed that St. Lucia had received no information from the United States despite repeated requests.
“We’ve requested information from the United States, and we have not got any information as to what happened,” Pierre said.
“As I speak, we still consider it a missing persons case, and our own law enforcement are trying their best to see if they can decipher what happened.”
When pressed by the journalist on whether the United States was obstructing the investigation because five months had elapsed without a response, Pierre declined to respond.
“I’m on the record to say that they’ve given us no information,” he said.
The exchange became increasingly tense after the journalist suggested the government had not done enough to engage the victims’ families.
Pierre rejected the suggestion, saying the families were “our people.”
“They are my people, so I’m very concerned about them. I’m sure more than you,” he said, adding that while he understood their pain, he could only speak to the information available to his government.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also rejected attempts to characterise the incident as murder before investigations had concluded.
She said Trinidad and Tobago’s own investigations had uncovered no evidence to support claims that the two men had been killed by United States authorities.
“Our legal advice has not been that they are murders, and I can only act within the rule of law based on the legal advice that we have received,” Persad-Bissessar said.
She stressed that governments could not substitute legal findings with media assertions.
Trinidad itself had faced issues as two of its citizens were killed in a US military boat strike. The men, Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41 were from the fishing village of Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago. They were killed on October 14, 2025, alongside four other passengers, when a US military missile struck their vessel as they were returning home from fishing and farming in Venezuela.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley likewise cautioned against prejudging the matter, describing it as both legally and geopolitically complex.
“You have come clearly with a view to prosecute, and that may be legitimate for you to do so as a journalist,” she told the journalist.
“But let us also be clear that this is going to be a very acrimonious legal and geopolitical issue.”
She said disputes could arise over whether the incident should be considered an act of war, an issue of military engagement or one falling within ordinary criminal law.
Mottley said Barbados remained committed to the principles of the rule of law and the presumption of innocence.
“Morally, I would prefer not to see it,” she said in reference to the reported loss of life, adding that Barbados consistently believed conflicts should be resolved without violence.
Suriname’s Foreign Minister Melvin Bouva, representing President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons at the press conference, also declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said respect for international law and human rights must guide governments’ actions.
“Our approach is and will always be in respect for the rule of law,” Bouva said.
“We are living within a world where we do need to apply international law, the commitments and human rights.”
Human rights advocates have accused the United States of engaging in extrajudicial killings in its anti-drug trafficking campaign which has seen dozens of people killed in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
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