Relatives have been left with rumors and social media posts — as well as their loved ones’ absences — to reach their own conclusions.
Mr. Joseph’s family is believed to be the first to publicly say they believe a relative is among those killed on one of the targeted boats. Mr. Joseph’s neighbor, known by his last name Samaroo, was on the same boat and is also missing, Mr. Joseph’s aunt, Lynette Burnley said.
Wayne Sturge, Trinidad and Tobago’s defense minister, said he had not received official confirmation that any of those on the boat were from Trinidad. The strike took place in international waters, so the government of Trinidad and Tobago has no jurisdiction to investigate, he said.
The first attack, which killed 11 people, was announced by the Trump administration on Sept. 2. Family and friends took to social media to lament the deaths of eight people from the Venezuelan town of San Juan de Unare they said had died in the strike. Nobody included surnames.
They were quickly quashed: Venezuelan security officials descended on San Juan de Unare, cut off the electricity and made clear that public pronouncements about the attacks were not welcome, according to four townspeople, including the niece of one of the victims. Posts were deleted.
The wife of one of the people, who lived in Güiria, a town also on the Venezuelan coast, told The New York Times on the condition that her name not be published that her husband, a fisherman, had gone to work one day and had never returned.
The Venezuelan government appears to have cracked down on publicity about the attack, experts said, because officials were anxious not to antagonize the United States in the face of a military buildup in the Caribbean that appears to be meant to ratchet up pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, President Nicolás Maduro.
