Venezuela Condemns US Drone Strike in Caribbean, Calls It ‘Extrajudicial Execution’

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, on Thursday denounced a recent US drone strike in Caribbean waters that killed six people, calling it “a new set of extrajudicial executions.”

Addressing the UN Security Council, Moncada urged an investigation into what he described as “a series of assassinations,” claiming that five lethal attacks since September have left 27 people dead. The US has said the operations target suspected drug traffickers.

Among those reportedly killed in the latest strike on Tuesday were two fishermen from Trinidad and Tobago, Moncada said. In the coastal town of Las Cuevas, relatives of one of the men, Chad Joseph, mourned his disappearance. They believe he was aboard the boat hit by the strike, though no confirmation has been provided.

“People are crying. Why is Donald Trump destroying families?” Joseph’s cousin, Afisha Clement, told The Associated Press. She said Joseph had been working on farms in Venezuela for the past six months but had planned to return home this week.

Christine Clement, Joseph’s grandmother, said, “He was a quiet person. He has left the whole village in sadness.” The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian reported that another man, identified only as “Samaroo,” is also missing.

At the UN, Moncada displayed the newspaper’s front page showing photos of the two missing men. “There is a killer prowling the Caribbean,” he declared. “People from different countries are suffering the effects of these massacres.”

Only a few miles separate Venezuela from Trinidad and Tobago, and the ongoing US strikes have alarmed local fishermen. “There is no justification at all,” Moncada said. “They are fabricating a war.”

The administration of US President Donald Trump has defended the operations, saying suspected drug traffickers are “unlawful combatants” subject to military force. Critics—including Democratic lawmakers—argue that the strikes violate US and international law. Some Republicans have also called for greater transparency regarding their legal basis.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, however, praised the first strike in the southern Caribbean, saying traffickers “should be killed violently.”

The US began expanding its maritime military presence in the Caribbean earlier this year in what analysts describe as an unprecedented move. A recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said Puerto Rico now provides “the lion’s share of such infrastructure” as Washington shifts defense priorities toward the Western Hemisphere.

“The administration’s declaration of war against drug cartels has raised a host of legal, ethical, and moral questions,” the CSIS report noted, warning that the justification for these strikes “is already facing fierce domestic scrutiny.”