Drama in the Caribbean: the boat sank in the sea and was saved swimming between tears and tears

With the help of his mother, Yubreilys Merchán learned to swim in the cold waters of the beaches of his native village, Güiria, an isolated fishing village located in the far east of Venezuela. This learning surely saved his life.

Merchán rode in a small boat full of Venezuelans, wrecked in the waters of the Caribbean a few days ago, and had to react in seconds, while his fellow travelers were lost in the tumultuous waters of Bocas de Dragón, an isolated region between Venezuela and Trinidad. and Tobago, frequented by fishermen, smugglers and drug traffickers.

Thirty people were traveling on the wooden boat that sank in the middle of a heavy swell.

In a desperate attempt to survive, the 23-year-old hairstylist removed all her clothes to reduce the weight of her body and facilitate swimming, amid screams and screams. It was early Wednesday morning.

Then, along with another inhabitant of Güiria who was at his side, he crossed the coast, swimming in the darkness, towards the small Venezuelan island of Patos, about eight kilometers southeast of the Venezuelan state. Sugar.

After a long swim, the two girls managed to reach the rocky coast of the island. They climbed stones with the little force they had left and fell on the rough beach.

MERCHAN In the photo. (Carmen García via AP).

When the two girls felt safe, their first reaction was to hug and cry ceaselessly until they fell asleep.

"It was a miracle, something incredible, like in a movie," Merchán's mother, Luisa García, said in a moving interview with The Associated Press.

The odyssey of the eldest of his three daughters underlines the enormous risks that many Venezuelans take to flee the crisis that rages in the oil country and which is among the richest in the region.

While most Venezuelan migrants traveled by land to neighboring Colombia and Brazil, overcrowded fishing boats sometimes smuggle people into an uncertain future on the neighboring Caribbean islands.

Some women resort to prostitution on their arrival, according to the mother of Merchán, a 44-year-old hairdresser who lives in Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean country for two years.

In addition to Merchán and his companion, fishermen from Güiria managed to rescue seven other survivors and found the bodies of a 16-year-old man and a teenager. Twenty-three other people are still missing after the worst maritime tragedy in Venezuela for several years.

Still under the shock of the 24 hours of anguish that went by without knowing the fate of her daughter, Garcia used a phrase to describe the tremendous relief she felt when Merchan's husband was called to tell him that the eldest of his three daughters was alive. . “ He turned my soul to my body“ when he heard the news, he said.

Merchán, her husband, arrived at the island of Patos the day after the sinking and brought it back, thanks to the help of a fisherman who put his little boat in search of survivors.

Merchán is still hospitalized in a hospital in Güiria, following burns in the leg caused by the fuel of the boat that caught fire and by severe eye irritation that prevents him from seeing clearly and oblige to wear glbades permanently. protect yourself from the sun.

To date, the Venezuelan authorities have not commented on the sinking, which is the second in the country in less than two years.

In January 2018, some 20 Venezuelans would be aboard the sinking of a small boat off the Caribbean island of Curacao. In fact, at least four of the occupants perished. The boat sailed illegally for Curacao and sank after hitting rocks near the entrance to a lagoon.

According to United Nations estimates, more than three million Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years to flee the crisis.

When asked if he felt that the girl would try again to escape by sea to Trinidad and Tobago, Garcia insisted, "I do not think my daughter will want to come back after what she has lived.