Caption: Caption: A screengrab showing Rishi Samaroo before he boarded a boat in Venezuela on October 12, 2025

By Prior Beharry

FAMILY members of Rishi Samaroo, a Trinidadian man they believe was killed in a recent US strike at sea, say he video-called them as he was boarding a boat to return home.

Relatives held a wake for Samaroo, 41, at Bim Bim Trace El Socorro on Wednesday night and said prayers will be held on Friday. Videos shared with AZP News show Samaroo at what the family identified as a goat farm in Venezuela.

His cousin, Brandon Wills, said Samaroo was in Venezuela with a friend and worked as a fisherman. His sister, Sallycar Korasingh, said he video-called her just before midnight on Sunday, October 12, to say he was boarding a boat bound for Trinidad. She said the family has not heard from him since.

Family members said they did not know the name of the boat. However, given the lack of contact, they believe Samaroo was among those aboard a vessel destroyed in what US President Donald Trump described on October 14 as a “kinetic strike” during an anti-narcotics operation.

Relatives of another Trinidadian, Chad Joseph of Las Cuevas, also said they believe he was among six people killed on the same boat. Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley, told AFP that people the family knows in Venezuela informed them he was on board.

US operations in the southern Caribbean have intensified in recent weeks as part of a broader effort targeting drug trafficking networks. Reports indicate the actions have resulted in multiple fatalities over the past month.

The Trump administration has also increased military presence in the region and has kept pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom US officials accuse of links to narcotics trafficking—allegations Maduro denies.

The origin of the targeted vessels — eight boats and one semi-submersible — has not been disclosed, though some were destroyed off Venezuela’s coast. On Wednesday the US revealed that two more strikes were done in the Pacific taking the total number of people killed to 37.

Samaroo’s family said he previously served approximately 17 years in prison on a murder charge, and that he was the father of three children with three different women.

Asked whether he was involved in drug trafficking, Korasingh said, “We don’t know anything about drugs; we know he was on a goat farm making cheese, and he stayed by a Venezuelan woman.”

Wills said it was Samaroo’s first trip to Venezuela.

Pundit Rajesh Boodoo, the family priest, will conduct the Hindu ceremony on Friday.

Boodoo said, “I will do the necessary prayers and rituals to ensure that the soul has a safe passage to the afterlife.”