(Caracas) A search was launched on Sunday to find a boat connecting Trinidad and Tobago to Venezuela and carrying at least nine people, AFP learned from a source within the rescue services.
Many boats make clandestine shuttles between the two countries, which are about a hundred kilometers away, transporting in particular illegal migrants wanting to join Trinidad and Tobago to flee the crisis in Venezuela, in the midst of economic slump, aggravated by economic sanctions – in particular Americans – aiming to oust President Nicolas Maduro from power. Others go there to buy cheaper products and food on the archipelago.
The missing boat set sail on Friday and was due to reach Güiria (northeastern Venezuela) on Saturday, according to this source. A relative of one of the passengers alerted the authorities on Saturday and the search was activated on Sunday.
Authorities had given no indication on Sunday evening.
According to a resident of Güiria, it was about a family which had gone to stock up in Trinidad and Tobago for Christmas and which had to bring back “food and toys”.
Since 2018, more than a hundred people have lost their lives in shipwrecks in this area. In December 2020, around thirty people died in the sinking of a boat that had left Güiria illegally.
It is not uncommon for boats to be overloaded and accidents are numerous.
According to the UN, some five million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million inhabitants since 2015, 25,000 having chosen as their destination Trinidad and Tobago, country of 1.3 million inhabitants, which says to have recorded the arrival of 16,000 Venezuelans.