For almost six months, people in the Caribbean have watched on as the U.S. military dished out lethal strikes on small boats allegedly fetching cocaine and other narcotic drugs in the Caribbean Sea and in the Atlantic.
Except for the incident when two Trinidadian nationals were killed by the Florida-based U.S. Southern Command late last year, most of the 130-plus crewmembers who have died in open waters appeared not to have been regional nationals. Also, most of those destroyed vessels did not wash up on regional shores nor did many bales of cocaine.
Now, authorities in the Eastern Caribbean are racing to investigate the latest military strike, as confirmed by a Southern Command announcement this week.
This is so because the remnants of a vessel have washed up near the shores of Canouan Island in the Grenadines. Canouan is part of the string of Grenadine islands in the federation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Police say that local fishermen from St. Vincent have reported seeing the partly submerged vessel in waters off the tourist island. No bodies have been seen, but St. Lucian authorities say they are worried that three locals who have been reported missing since Feb. 9 might have been on the vessel. The strike was conducted on Friday.
“Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by designated terrorist organizations. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
But as investigators get to work, media in St. Vincent are reporting that there might have been a second deadly strike, which has not been confirmed either by the U.S. military or by local officials.
“Wreckage and body parts found floating in waters between St. Vincent and St. Lucia have raised questions about whether the vessel or whether some strikes go unreported,” One News St. Vincent.com reported on Monday. “The wreckage of the vessel discovered in those waters indicates that it was a St. Lucian vessel,” the publication stated.
Neither high-level St. Lucian nor Vincentian officials have commented on the strikes and efforts to determine whether Caribbean nationals might have been the victims, as was the case when the two Trinidadians were killed in waters between Venezuela and Trinidad. Family members have since filed a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. courts.
