A one-year-old Venezuelan baby died in his mother’s arms during an operation by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard to intercept a boat carrying undocumented migrants that departed Venezuela, authorities in the Caribbean country confirmed on Sunday.
The action took place at midnight on Saturday (5) local time, 23:00 in Brasilia, when agents detected a vessel that crossed the maritime border between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. As the boat refused to stop, the Coast Guard began firing “warning shots” in its defense, officials said.
The agents claimed to fear for the lives of the crew in the face of an attack they say they suffered from the ship where the migrants were traveling, without specifying what the attack would have been. “All available methods, including the use of a megaphone, reflector and flares, were used to bring the suspect vessel to a halt,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “Still, he kept trying to get away.”
When the boat was intercepted, agents saw the migrants, who were hiding. “An adult migrant who was with a baby was discovered, who said he was bleeding,” the statement said. After her condition stabilized, the woman was taken to a local health center, but the baby was no longer responding to emergency care. It was not disclosed how many people were on the boat.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley said he had spoken with the Venezuelan regime’s number two, Delcy Rodriguez, about the case and hoped for better cooperation between the countries’ Coast Guards.
“I expressed my deepest condolences on behalf of myself and all the people of Trinidad and Tobago regarding this unfortunate loss of the baby’s life,” the Caribbean country’s leader said in a statement.
The vessel left on Saturday night from Delta Amacuro, a Venezuelan state with an indigenous majority. It is estimated that between six and ten boats leave there daily with migrants fleeing the country’s crisis, human rights activist Orlando Moreno told AFP news agency.
“This is an episode that you could see happening because they shoot the boats’ engines to stop them, and in this case the protocol got out of hand,” explained Moreno, who has been in contact with the baby’s family members.
Clandestine departures have already left at least a hundred dead and missing since 2018, the result of a dangerous crossing in precarious vessels, which travel the 120 kilometers that separate Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela above their maximum capacity.
The UN estimates that more than 5 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2015 due to the acute crisis, with around 25,000 living in Trinidad and Tobago — but the number could reach 40,000. With a population of 1.3 million, the Caribbean country says it has registered 16,000 Venezuelans.
Trinidadian-Tobago authorities have tightened their deportation policy to prevent the illegal entry of people, who are accused by the government of carrying out robberies against the local population, using children to do so.
