“Between 16 and 20 people” who were to participate in a “religious retreat” have been missing for a fortnight in western Venezuela, announced Monday the Civil Protection (PC), which will launch searches Tuesday morning.
The local press evokes a greater number of missing persons.
These people have not given any news “since August 22” after leaving for a “religious” activity in La Grita, a town in the state of Tachira on the border with Colombia, the director told AFP. of the Civil Protection of the region, Yesnardo Canal.
An 8-day-old newborn is among the missing, said Mr. Canal.
The authorities refuse to dwell on the subject, claiming to wait for the results of the investigation, both on the type of religious activity and on the number of missing persons.
During a press conference, the director of the PC, hoping for “positive results” reported that residents of the area had seen “groups of people in mountainous areas”.
“All this is strange (…) there are several versions, we will not know which is the right one before” the research and the investigation, estimated Juan Carlos Escalante, the mayor of Jauregui, another locality in the sector.