Authorities probing report of boat mishap in Venezuela

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 22:33 by Denis Chabrol

Guyanese authorities were Tuesday night probing reports that three Guyanese drowned after the boat they were returning in from Venezuela capsized and sank.

Residents and Coast Guardsmen said information was sketchy, but they learnt that the incident occurred either late Monday or Tuesday afternoon in Venezuelan waters in the vicinity of the Orinoco bar. “The boat went down,” one official told Demerara Waves Online News.

Dead are a 12-year old girl, an unidentified male and  Hemandri ‘Pamela’ Kedna  formerly of Wales Post Office Street, West Bank Demerara.

Multiple sources told Demerara Waves Online News that the boat was overloaded with 14 persons and cargo when tragedy struck. The passengers included several Venezuelans.

A usually reliable source said the boat in which the Guyanese departed Venezuela did not arrive in Guyanese waters. Bits of information have been circulating in Mabaruma ever since a boat arrived and the occupants told a family member there. Relatives of the occupants departed Port Kaituma for Mabaruma to meet with the persons who witnessed aspects of the reported mishap.

There are informal speed boat services between Venezuela and Guyana.