Se­nior Re­porter jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt Rel­a­tives and friends of Las Cuevas res­i­dent Chad “Char­po” Joseph say the US air strike off Venezuela that killed him was an act of wicked­ness. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump first broke the news about the strike in post on so­cial me­dia on Tues­day.“In­tel­li­gence con­firmed the ves­sel was traf­fick­ing nar­cotics, was as­so­ci­at­ed with il­lic­it nar­coter­ror­ist net­works, and was tran­sit­ing along a known route for smug­gling,” Trump wrote.The ac­tion was part of the Unit­ed States’ con­tin­u­ing crack­down on what it says is the nar­co-traf­fick­ing ac­tiv­i­ty em­a­nat­ing out of Venezuela. It was the fifth such ex­er­cise by the US mil­i­tary in the re­gion since Trump or­dered the mil­i­tary to take up strate­gic po­si­tions in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro is deemed a nar­co-traf­fick­er by the US, which still has a US$50 mil­lion boun­ty on his head.In all, 27 peo­ple have been killed in five air strikes by the US, with Trump say­ing the suc­cess in the seas may now lead to a land at­tack on traf­fick­ers. Yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Las Cuevas res­i­dents learned Joseph, 26, was one of two Trinida­di­ans who were on the ves­sel along­side four Venezue­lans dur­ing Tues­day’s US strike. The oth­er man was iden­ti­fied on­ly as Sama­roo. In the sea­side com­mu­ni­ty yes­ter­day, one of Joseph’s friends, who iden­ti­fied him­self on­ly as Kern, said he found the ac­tion by the US was wrong. “What the US do­ing there, I think it is in­hu­mane. All yuh blow the boat up, what ev­i­dence it have re­al­ly is drugs and stuff like that? Leh we say is guns or hu­man traf­fick­ing or any­thing, what is the clo­sure that the fam­i­ly is hav­ing now?” he asked. Kern, who spoke with Guardian Me­dia while four oth­er men were play­ing cards, said the at­mos­phere in the fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty was one of sad­ness. Those with him un­der a shed ques­tioned the le­gal­i­ty of the bomb­ing of the fish­ing ves­sel. His con­cern about Joseph’s fam­i­ly get­ting clo­sure was shared by Joseph’s moth­er Lenore Burn­ley, who said the sec­ond of her six chil­dren was not in­volved in drugs. With no body to bury or cre­mate, Burn­ley said she is trust­ing in God for the clo­sure she needs. “I leave every­thing in God’s hand. He knows, he sees, and I does say he does give you what you can bear. He wouldn’t give you what you can­not bear. So, I leave every­thing to God.” Burn­ley, like Kern, is not pleased with how her son was killed. “I find it wrong be­cause it have peo­ple will be in­no­cent and they will still do and say oth­er­wise. So, I can’t jus­ti­fy for oth­er peo­ple, but it’s not right. The sea law is they sup­posed to stop the boat and in­ter­cept it, not blow it up like that.” She added that the on­ly ev­i­dence she has that her son was killed were re­ports from oth­ers. Joseph’s grand­moth­er, Chris­tine Clement, said her grand­son was liv­ing Venezuela for the past three months and had tried to re­turn home be­fore but that failed. The 69-year-old said it would have been bet­ter for him to re­main in Venezuela and make a life there. “The first time he was com­ing up, they shoot up the boat, he end up sur­viv­ing. Some peo­ple take care of him. Two days ago, I ask his moth­er when he com­ing and she say some­thing hap­pen to the boat and he couldn’t come back again and had to turn back.” Clement’s hus­band, like his daugh­ter and wife, said he is trust­ing in God for jus­tice and clo­sure. But he minced no words when shar­ing his feel­ings to­wards the US’ ac­tion. “I watch that as wicked­ness. Why... what you killing the peo­ple chil­dren for? It have noth­ing in that, it not sup­posed to be that way.” Told that his grand­son’s death is linked to his sup­posed in­volve­ment in drug traf­fick­ing, Clement said: “Nah, nah, nah! The boy is not no drug traf­fick­er. They does make their lil run and come back.” He said he was shocked by the at­tack, as his grand­son had nor­mal­ly made such trips with­out in­ci­dents in the past. Af­ter the first US air strike on Sep­tem­ber 2, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she had no sym­pa­thy for traf­fick­ers” and that the US mil­i­tary should “kill them all vi­o­lent­ly.” Ear­li­er this month, af­ter the fourth at­tack, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she re­mains in sup­port of US strikes on al­leged Venezue­lan drug traf­fick­ers. Her sup­port came af­ter bi­lat­er­al dis­cus­sions on en­er­gy and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in Wash­ing­ton, DC, with US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio. Calls and mes­sages to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge and For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers all went unan­swered.