Pirates steal fishermen’s ration despite being served lunch and dinner

Heavily armed pirates dressed in military attire, on September 15, forced their way onto a fishing vessel and stole ration from its crew despite being served breakfast, lunch and dinner. According to captain of the vessel, Devanand Singh, the Spanish-speaking pirates boarded his boat at around 18:00hrs, while he and his crew were catching fish in the south west of the Waini River, North West District (NWD), Region One.

The men, whom Singh described as the Venezuelan military, held the fishermen hostage and accused them of fishing illegally in Venezuelan waters. The pirates told Singh and his crew that they are going to lock them up in a Venezuelan prison for the illegal act. However, Singh said that he told the pirates that their accusations were false based on a reading from his GPS, which showed that they were in Guyana’s territory.

The men, Singh said, agreed with him and admitted that they were the ones acting illegally. The gunmen then proceeded to inform the fishermen that they were on the vessel to steal. Singh continued that pirates even gave an explanation as to why they were going to rob them. “They explained that they are starving in Venezuela and needed to feed their families”, said Singh.

With this being said, continued Singh, the pirates told them that have been stealing cash, fish, food among other items from fishing boats in the Waini River. While being held hostage by the pirates, the fishermen cooked them breakfast, lunch and dinner but despite this, the gunmen still went ahead and stole the fishermen’s ration along with cell phones and other electronic gadgets.

The pirates then forced Singh to tow their boat-which had mechanical issues, to Barima. Without food supplies, Singh said, they were forced to cut their fishing trip short and return to Georgetown. Apart from lodging a report with police, Singh also wrote a letter to the Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, requesting more Coast Guards presence in the south west area, Waini River.

(Kaieteur News)