PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Trinidad and Tobago government on Sunday reiterated that it has no concrete evidence that two Trinidadians were killed when the United States military bombed a small vessel in international waters near the coast of Venezuela as part of its so-called war on the illegal drugs trade in the region.

Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers, speaking at a news conference here, referred to the nationals as “missing” telling reporters “as far as we know these persons may very well be missing, we don’t know them to be dead.

“We don’t know that they were actual persons on any boats that may have been destroyed by the US,” he said, adding “the relatives conducted funerals, I think one of them did, my heart goes out to them…and we wish them all the best”.

“What we did say is that in lieu of any evidence that these persons have actually died, the best course of action would be to go to the police and file a missing person’s report,” he added.

The country’s homeland security minister, Roger Alexander, a former senior police officer, had soon after the incident also cast doubt on the “innocence” of the two men – Richie Samaroo and Chad “Charpo” Joseph after claims they were involved in criminal activities.

“All I can say is that what the Homeland Ministry is treating with is really newspaper reports, because we would want to get as much information as we can to assist in any way that we can in terms of identifying persons and all of that,” Alexander said then.

The secretary of the non-governmental organisation, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, Gary Aboud, had confirmed that two Trinidad and Tobago nationals were among the six people killed following one of the US strikes on alleged narco traffickers.

“We would like to offer our condolences to the families, friends, children, wives of the deceased. Very, very, sorry that they were murdered like this. I am very, very, sorry,” Aboud said on a radio broadcast with regard to the killings of Samaroo and Joseph. He said that as a result of the killings, local fisherfolk are now afraid of going out to sea.