At least 19 Venezuelans drowned trying to flee the country

Venezuelan human rights activist Rocío San Miguel on Sunday reported the deaths of 19 Venezuelan emigrants, including women and minors, who drowned while trying to leave the country and whose boat was wrecked near the coast of the State of Sucre.

San Miguel, lawyer by profession and president of the NGO Citizen Control for Security, Defense and National Armed Forces, posted on her Twitter account on Sunday that coast guard officials had found the bodies of 19 people at sea , including adults and minors, 6.3 nautical miles from the coast of Güiria, in Sucre.

San Miguel added that it was “a new deadly wreck of a boat that went missing three days ago. They died seeking freedom and a better future for their families, fleeing Venezuela in such a way. precarious”.

The Organization of American States (OAS) Commissioner for the Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee Crisis, David Smolansky, explained that relatives of these people denounced their departure on Sunday, December 6 in a peñero de Güiria to Trinidad and Tobago , the agency reported. news from Europa Press.

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 during the day in a tweet.

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

Three weeks ago, a group of Venezuelan migrants, including 16 children, were deported from Trinidad and Tobago and spent 48 hours at sea before returning to the island by court order, the site reported. Venezuelan Internet 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.

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