Caption: Bheem Korasingh and Zorina Samaroo, the parents of Rishi Samaroo. AZP/Prior Beharry
By Prior Beharry
THE mother of one of the two men allegedly killed in a US strike reported on October 14, 2025, says she is “more confused now” after statements by Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Sean Sobers.
At Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference, Sobers said there was no evidence that Chad “Charpo” Joseph and Rishi Samaroo died in the air strike. He maintained that the men are missing, not dead.
Responding to questions about their disappearance and relatives’ claims that both were killed by US strikes while returning from Venezuela, Sobers said, “Consistently since this incident arose, what the media is reporting is actually quite irresponsible.”
“When the government says there is no evidence to suggest these persons were killed by the strike pursuant to military intervention, we say that because it is a fact,” he added. Sobers advised the families to file missing-person reports.
On Friday, Samaroo’s mother, Zorina, 61, said, “I did go to the police and told them about my son. I don’t know what to do.” She said officers told her the incident happened in international waters and “therefore they can’t do anything about that.” She said an officer took her phone number but has not contacted her since.
She said, “I don’t know what to do. I’m not sleeping. I don’t know what to believe. I’m not eating and I’m taking tablets to sleep,” she said. “I am still praying. No one had a right to take away my son.”
Samaroo’s sister, Sallycar Korasingh, said, “If the minister says that, then the government has to put things in place to locate him. What is the government doing?” She added, “I was on a video call with him on Sunday night (October 12), just before he boarded the boat. We have not heard from him since.”
“If he is assuming that, then where is the evidence? What is the name of the vessel that they blew up? They are supposed to know all that. And we’re not sure that he got into that boat,” Korasingh said.
Samaroo’s family held a Hindu memorial prayer service at their home at Bim Bim Trace in El Socorro, about ten kilometres east of Port of Spain, last Friday.
@azpnews.com Without their loved one’s body, family and friends gather in Bim Bim Trace in El Socorro, Trinidad and Tobago, to hold a memorial service and funeral rituals for Rishi Samaroo – one of six killed in an American attack announced last week in the Caribbean Sea. The United States has deployed a military fleet in the Caribbean waters in what it has called an anti-drug operation – mainly aimed at Venezuela. Video: AFP/Prior Beharry @ttpoliceservice @realdonaldtrump @u.s.army.us @usnavy.com #rishisamaroo #airstrike #boatstrike #fisherman #donaldtrump
Joseph’s family held a memorial service last Wednesday at St Michael’s RC Church, Las Cuevas, the north coast fishing village where he lived.
Joseph’s aunt, Lynette Burnley, also had a message for US authorities: “I just want to tell them to stop it. It’s innocent people they’re killing, and it’s people’s family. Because they wouldn’t like that to happen to their family. So they need to stop it. That’s all I have to say—stop it.”
The US strikes targeting alleged narco traffickers have reportedly killed more than 50 people.
