Vincentian fisherfolk are still ‘scared’ to fish since US lethal military strike
It has been three weeks since the United States government killed three St Lucian fishermen several miles from Canouan, but some Vincentian fisherfolk are still “scared” to fish as far out to sea and as early as they used to before the lethal military strike.
Dean Hutchins has been a fisherman since 1996, and it is his first time hearing about such an attack made on fisherfolk in the territorial waters of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
“…we have no place here that makes guns or whatever in our country, so I can’t understand why that they are coming here to humbug us. We don’t have no nuclear weapons. We don’t have no sort of weapons or stuff to say we have any mass murders or whatever,” Hutchins told SEARCHLIGHT.
In fact, Hutchins said that he was meant to go out to sea that fateful day, February 13, 2026, but the captains of the boat were a no-show so he spent the time sleeping in the boat instead.
However, since the strike occurred, Hutchins said he now sees drones flying overhead while fishing, and added that the news of the strike has caused him to grow timid as the idea of “blowing boats out of water is new” to Vincentian fisherfolk.
“…you must be frightened because you never know. They could fire and they put fisherman under a great fright because we always have to panic every morning…we have to look up in the air to see if anything coming to blow us up and we are…plying our trade….”
Hutchins added that fishermen have no oil nor diamonds and that they are “practically poor” people. He said that the US should leave poor people alone and stop harassing them because they don’t have guns, bombs nor mass murderers.
“Even if they had drugs in the boat, I think they should call a stop, have some kind of coast guard or something come, pick the people up. You can’t take innocent people’s life, they’re people, poor people who looking to make a living too…we are kind of scared….”
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