At least 14 dead in shipwreck of Venezuelan emigrants – telam

According to Smolansky, the boat was kicked off the island and sank.

The administration of President Nicolás Maduro confirmed this Sunday afternoon the discovery of 11 bodies on Saturday and added that this Sunday three others had been found.

The government explained that the remains of “11 dead” were found yesterday at 6:10 pm “during inspections carried out by the coast guard” about seven miles off the coast of Güiria “.

“Today, following the events, we found three dead on the beach, two adult men and a woman”, adds the document, reproduced by the official newspaper journalltimas Noticias.

The text was released after Venezuelan and Trinidadian law enforcement sources reported the discovery of the first 11 bodies, and unofficial sources risked that the deceased were the 19 occupants of the boat.

“The bodies were found on Saturday (yesterday) seven nautical miles off Sucre and transferred to Güiria in the patrol boat Sereta, acronym PG-412, at the Bolivarian National Guard wharf,” Sucre police sources said. . cited by Latest News.

“They are four adult women, four adult men, two boys and a girl” and “unofficially, 19 people were known to be traveling in the boat, which disappeared three days ago, bound for Trinidad and- Tobago, ”added these informants.

The fact was later confirmed by the Coast Guard of Trinidad and Tobago, who said in a statement that yesterday “they had received information from the Venezuelan authorities indicating that on the same day 11 bodies had been recovered in the waters near the coastal city of Venezuela “. .

“The checks indicated that the coast guard did not intercept any ships coming from Güiria on December 6 or at any time thereafter,” the agency said, according to Sputnik news agency.

Meanwhile, the president of the Venezuelan NGO Control Ciudadano, lawyer Rocío San Miguel, assured on Twitter that the dead emigrants were 19, the initial number of travelers on the boat.

Juan Guaidó’s Interim Government Commissioner to the Organization of American States (OAS) for the Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee Crisis, David Smolansky, explained that relatives of the emigrants claimed they left last Sunday in a peñero de Güiria to Trinidad and Tobago, the Europa Press agency reported.

According to Smolansky, the boat was kicked off the island and sank.

“Corpses were found floating in the sea, very close to the Venezuelan coast,” he posted on Twitter today.

Smolansky repeated that among those who died there were women and children.

Three weeks ago, a group of Venezuelan emigrants, including 16 children, were deported from Trinidad and Tobago and spent 48 hours at sea before returning to the island under the protection of a court order, recalled Venezuelan digital newspaper Efecto Cocuyo.

Authorities in Trinidad and Tobago say borders are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On December 9, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted provisional measures to six Venezuelan children involved in the case.

On November 26, the government of Venezuela called the government of Trinidad and Tobago to a “necessary” meeting, following the expulsion of 25 Venezuelans from the island.

Of the 25 deportees who arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on November 17, 16 were minors.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza explained that these likely conversations will focus on issues of “security, human mobility, the fight against crime and drug trafficking.