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At least 14 Venezuelans died when a boat wrecked in the Caribbean, the government of Venezuela reported this Sunday, hours after the opposition politician David smolansky confirm that they were migrants heading to Trinidad and Tobago.
“So far there are 11 bodies identified, seven adults and four minors. We do not rule out that other bodies have not yet appeared”, wrote on his Twitter account Smolanksy, appointed by the opposition Juan Guaidó as commissioner for the Organization of American States (OAS).
So far there are 11 bodies identified. 7 adults and 4 minors. We do not rule out that other bodies that have not yet appeared. In my two and a half years working on this crisis, this is possibly the most damaging case I have ever had to deal with. https://t.co/JNEUKM7YPT
– David Smolansky (@dsmolansky) December 13, 2020
Shortly before, he assured in the same social network that the migrants were “returned by Trinidad,” they were shipwrecked and their bodies were “found floating near the coast of Güiria, in the Venezuelan state of Sucre, very close to the island republic.
FINDING OF THE VICTIMS
For its part, the Venezuelan government reported in a statement that the patrol boat “Sereta“The Coast Guard found 11 bodies yesterday Saturday seven nautical miles (almost 13 kilometers) off the Venezuelan coast.
This Sunday, and “following up” on the shipwreck, the Venezuelan authorities found three more bodies on the beaches, two men and a woman.
The authorities emphasize that they are not “aware of any citizen manifesting the disappearance of a relative.”
All the corpses were transferred to the morgue of the Central Hospital of Cumaná, the capital of Sucre state, from which, apparently, the migrants set sail.
The security forces “are in the investigative task on these events,” added the government information, which does not rule out that “there is a link with the bands” of criminals in the area.
Finally, the Venezuelan Executive denounces that the gangs that operate in the area have links “with the Venezuelan extremism mafias,” although it does not detail what that relationship is.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
For his part and in the first messages, published at dawn on Sunday, still without confirmed death figures, Smolansky, appointed by the OAS commissioner for the Venezuelan migration crisis, assured that on the boat “there were women and minors“.
“Apparently, according to relatives and close friends of these people, the peñero (barge) left on December 6 from Güiria to Trinidad, was returned from the island and would have been shipwrecked. Corpses have been found floating in the sea, very close to the Venezuelan coasts, “he said.
He also recalled that on December 4 there was a meeting between the governments of Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago to address the situation of migrants trying to reach that island republic.
“The result: Venezuelans drowned on the coasts of Sucre state after trying to flee from the tyranny,” he added.
On November 22, 16 Venezuelan minors, including a four-month-old baby, were deported from Trinidad and Tobago and, after being unaccounted for at sea for about 48 hours, returned to the country that had deported them.
On that occasion, Smolansky asked the island government to abide by “the judgment of the Supreme Court of that country and act as recommended by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “ for “guarantee the protection of minors and reunification with their families“.
The IACHR then urged Trinidad and Tobago to “strictly” monitor the protection of migrant children and urged the country to “guarantee the entry” of “Venezuelans seeking international protection for urgent humanitarian reasons, as well as to respect the principle of no return”
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