Mourning took over the inhabitants of one Falcón Municipality in the state of the same name, after two boats which left with migrants, trying to illegally reach the island of Aruba in search of a better future, were lost at sea. Six days after the first boat left with nine men on board there is no information about their whereabouts, and five days after the second boat capsized, the authorities of Aruba have reported the discovery of only four bodies in its waters.
By Irene Revilla / Correspondent lapatilla.com
Seeing the lights so close at night and with a historic commercial and tourist exchange, the people of Falcon State cannot enter the island even if it is very close, as they need a visa and passport that the majority do not have. The dire needs of their families forces them to take the boats that leave clandestinely from the coastal areas of the Paraguaná peninsula to try to cross over into the island and seek to improve their quality of life and that of their relatives.
However, this journey across the sea has claimed the lives of many Venezuelans who join a forced migration that has accentuated since 2016, caused by the complex humanitarian crisis that the country is going through and after the closure of borders with the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. There are more than 100 missing people that left Falcón State in recent years try to cross over to Aruba and Curacao.
The first boat
According to relatives of the missing, the yellow boat with mustard and white stripes left at 5:00 pm on Saturday, December 9th, from Buchuaco with nine men, all hoping to get to the island to work. Several of them were fishermen from the Paraguaná area.
Since then, they have lost track of them. Neither the people who were waiting for them on the island have any information nor the families in Venezuela. They do not know who the captain of the boat was, because on these clandestine trips, immediate family members have little information.
The missing are Gustavo David Lugo Rojas, 20 years old, a resident of Las Cumaraguas and a relative of three of the dead reported by the Aruba government. Also traveling on the same boat was Juan José Hurtado Vargas, a resident of El Hato and son of one of the missing people on the boat that set sail from Paraguaná in 2019 with 17 people.
The other fellow travelers were Alexander Antonio Córdoba Urbina, Luis Refunjol Maldonado, Noelvis Leonel Carrasquero Reyes, Adelys José Carrasquero Morales, Ismael José Reyes Carrasquero, José Antonio Velasco and Jairo Nicolás Velasco. All residents of the Falcón Municipality.
The families received information this Wednesday that some had been located in the Colombian Guajira, but until this Friday there is no photo, call, or any evidence to confirm those messages that were sent to several relatives and the origin of these messages is unknown.
Some direct relatives of the missing traveled to the Puerto Estrella area to try to verify the information, but they did not find any of the missing persons in the hospitals or in the fishing area.
The case has already been reported to the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC), who have done some inquiries, but until the publication of this note no answers had been obtained.
The deceased
Relatives also learned that the second boat left on Sunday, December 10th, but there is no exact number of people who travelled on the boat. Aruba authorities reported that four bodies were recovered in its waters, presumably those of Venezuelans who were trying to enter the island illegally. Two bodies were located one day after sailing and the others in the next following days.
The families of Las Cumaraguas in the Falcón Municipality, confirmed through photos and clothing that they are María Virginia Martínez, Alexandra Lugo and José Lugo. These three passengers were inhabitants of the area, while the fourth body is believed to be of a person from another part of Venezuela or a foreigner, because there are no more records of missing locals.
In Las Cumaraguas there are the salt flats that bear the same name. Here two national companies buy salt from locals who extract it by artisanal methods and the sell it. In addition, it is a fishing area, and in recent years tourism has increased on its beaches such as “Mata Gorda”. In the area there is no telephone connectivity, the electrical service is very poor and so is the drinking water service. Its inhabitants even exchange salt for drinking water from the tanker trucks that pass through the place.
Despite being a paradisiacal area with a lot of tourist promotion through government entities, the reality is that their families live in a lethargy and backwardness that tempts them to look for migration as an alternative and the closest thing is the island of Aruba. They can do it with someone they know in the area, except that the sea conditions are not suitable for small artisanal boats in which the fishermen carry out their tasks.
Lapatilla.com contacted the press team of the Chavista Government of Falcón to seek the assessment of the Venezuelan government after the tragedy suffered by the people of the Paraguaná Peninsula, but no answers were obtained.
The families are also waiting for the formal procedures to be completed to repatriate the four bodies, since they do not have the money or visa to travel to the island. On these December days of celebration, the families of the towns have declared themselves in mourning for the two tragedies that have not yet had an end, as they hope that the missing can return to their homes safe and sound.
