The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard opened fire on a precarious boat in dwhere Venezuelan migrants were traveling and killed a one-year-old baby. The boy’s mother was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest.
“A discovered adult illegal migrant who was holding a baby and indicated that it was bleeding,” was the only thing that the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago said, through a concise statement from the Coast Guard.
The woman was stabilized and transferred to a local health center, but “unfortunately, the baby was found to be unresponsive”adds the official communication.
the coast guard He acknowledged in the text that he had “shot the engines” of the boat, although they did not take responsibility for the baby’s death.
The mother was shot between her chest and collarbone and was in stable condition at the Sangre Grande hospital on the island of Trinidad, waiting for a traumatologist to confirm the severity of her injuries.
What does the official version say
According to the version of the authorities, the boat that intended to reach the island rammed the patrol boat on several occasions and, “because the crew feared for their lives”, he fired at the engines “in self-defense” for it to stop.
“All available methods were used, including the use of the megaphone, ship’s horn, searchlight and flares, to try to stop the suspect vessel, however the vessel continued to attempt to evade,” they said.
Repudiation for the violent actions of the Coast Guard
The human rights activist and coordinator of active defenders of the Penal Forum of Venezuela, Orlando Moreno, reported that the NGO notified the office of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Venezuela and the Mission to Determine the UN Facts.
“Relatives of the murdered boy tell me that her parents are shocked and look for another girl who was also on the boat. I would be held, they presume. Other children and adults about whom there is no information until now were also on the trip, “Moreno explained.
Who also repudiated the assassination was opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who through his Twitter account said that “the shots fired by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard have no justification, they killed him.”
It is not the first time that Venezuelan migrants have died trying to reach the shores of Trinidad and Tobago. In April of last year, a boat capsized in Boca de Serpiente, a narrow body of water that is difficult to navigate, while trying to complete the route to Trinidad and Tobago, with an initial balance of three dead and 17 missing.
The rafters had left from La Horqueta, in the eastern state of Delta Amacuro, and were shipwrecked while still in Venezuelan waters.