Relatives of missing fisherman Chad Joseph are disputing claims by Attorney General John Jeremie and Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers that no Trinidad and Tobago national was killed during a recent US operation in Caribbean waters.
In a Financial Times report on November 13, Jeremie stated that no local fisherman had been killed. Sobers later repeated this position at a media conference.
But Joseph’s family insists they have heard nothing to confirm he is alive.
During a visit to the family’s Las Cuevas Village home, Joseph’s grandmother, Christine Clement, dismissed the ministers’ statements. She said the family continues to hope, but evidence suggests otherwise.
“Nobody ever came and told us anything. I wish they were alive. We are praying every day that they are alive,” Clement said. “But if he was alive or in custody somewhere, he would have reached out to us by now.”
Yesterday marked 40 days since the family believes Joseph, 26, died. Relatives held a memorial service in his honour. They believe he was killed in an attack on a vessel off Venezuela on October 16. Joseph had reportedly been stranded in Venezuela for several months before the incident.
Another fisherman, Rishi Samaroo, is also believed to have died in the same operation, which US authorities described as part of efforts to combat narco-trafficking.
Asked whether she accepted the government’s position, Clement replied, “I don’t know what to say about that. I would be glad to know if it’s so. But I say if anything, he would have gotten in contact with his mother.”
Both families filed missing persons reports on the advice of government officials.
