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Trinidad and Tobago coast guard killed a Venezuelan baby on a migrant raft

The Trinidad and Tobago authorities reported that a one-year-old baby died in his mother’s armse during maneuvers of the Coast Guard of that country to intercept a ship where illegal migrants from Venezuela traveled.

The event was recorded at midnight this Saturday when Trinidadian agents aboard the military vessel TTS Scarborough detected a ship that crossed the border between the Caribbean island and Venezuela.

When it finally stopped, they realized that there were illegal immigrants on board, “who had remained hidden and therefore had not been seen before,” they excused themselves.

“An adult illegal migrant was discovered holding a baby and indicated that it was bleeding,” added the cold text from the coast guard.

The woman was stabilized and transferred to a local health center, but “unfortunately, baby was found to be unresponsive“, continued the questioned official communication.

The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. Photo Trinidadexpress.com.

the local environment Trinity Express explained that the nine-month-old baby died before reaching a hospital.

The same medium detailed that one of the two ships involvedBoth are patrolmen which were delivered two months ago and deployed to protect the country’s maritime borders.

The Prime Minister of the Caribbean country, Keith Rowleysaid about it: “These ships are now the main assets of our Coast Guard and will allow us to have an effective presence in the Atlantic Ocean, which washes the eastern shores of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Warning Shots”

According to the authorities, the boat from Venezuela refused to stop so they used “warning shots” in “self-defense”since they alleged that they feared for the lives of the crew in the face of the “onslaught” that they say they suffered from the ship where the migrants were traveling.

The violence of the intervention is far from being as reported in the official version.

“All available methods, including the use of the ship’s megaphone, searchlight and flares, were used to attempt to bring the suspect vessel to a stop, however it continued to attempt to evade TTS SCARBOROUGH,” a statement said.

And they detailed: “Following standard protocols, warning shots were then fired ahead of the ship“. One of them would have killed the baby.

The boat left on Saturday night from Delta Amacuro (east), an impoverished state with a majority indigenous population, where it is estimated that between six and ten boats daily with emigrants fleeing the crisis in the country under the regime of Nicolás Maduro, a human rights activist told the AFP news agency.

“This is an episode that was seen coming because they shoot at the engines of the boats for them to stop, in this case the protocol got out of hand,” said Orlando Moreno, who was in contact with relatives of the deceased baby.

raw number

The shipwrecks between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago cause a humanitarian crisis.  AFP Photo

The shipwrecks between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago cause a humanitarian crisis. AFP Photo

The departures of clandestine ships left at least a hundred dead and missing since 2018as a result of a dangerous journey in precarious and overweight boats that cross the 120 kilometers of sea route that separate the two countries.

The United Nations estimates that more than five million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015 forced by the acute crisis in their country and that some 25,000 live in Trinidad and Tobago.

This Caribbean country of 1.3 million inhabitants maintains that it has 16,000 officially registered.

Trinidad and Tobago tightened its deportation policys to prevent the illegal entry of people, pointing out that its inhabitants are under “assault” of illegal immigrants who “use innocent children” for their purposes.

With information from AFP

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