RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca­s­ookraj@guardian.co.tt

Fullar­ton fish­er­men in Ce­dros say they are still be­ing chased by Venezuela’s Guardia Na­cional as they fish in ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters off the coast of Bonasse and Ica­cos. The lat­est in­ci­dent oc­curred at dawn on Fri­day.

Speak­ing at Fullar­ton Beach yes­ter­day, fish­er­man Berg­er Sadoo said the Venezue­lans have been ter­ror­is­ing fish­er­men for too long.

Re­call­ing the in­ci­dent, he said: “We went to fish in the sea this morn­ing and one of the Venezue­lan Coast Guard ran af­ter four boats straight. It was not easy, but the Trinidad Coast Guard was pass­ing and saw what was go­ing on. They pro­tect­ed us, and the Guardia ran back.”

Sadoo said he does not plan to go back to sea over the week­end. “I’m stay­ing on shore for now be­cause I don’t want a re­peat of what hap­pened,” he said.

At Bonasse, some fish­er­men said they find com­fort in the ar­rival of the US war­ship USS Grave­ly, which is sched­uled to dock in Port-of-Spain on Sun­day. The ves­sel car­ries 300 sol­diers who will en­gage in mil­i­tary train­ing with the T&T De­fence Force.

“I feel it good, Venezue­lans on the bor­der. The Amer­i­cans here to pro­tect we,” el­der­ly fish­er­man Ray­mond Ram­cha­ran said as he quick­ly re­paired nets at the fish­ing vil­lage. He said he hoped the ship’s pres­ence would re­duce risks at sea.

Oth­er fish­er­men said they hope the US pres­ence could pro­vide sup­port to lo­cal crews. “I don’t know if the Amer­i­can Coast Guard could as­sist the fish­er­men,” Rakesh Ram­cha­ran said. “But right now the fish­er­men need a lit­tle help.”

Mean­while, fish­er­man Khem­chan Hen­ry said he is con­cerned about the treat­ment of fish­er­men by the Unit­ed States. “I can’t say any­thing un­til I see things hap­pen­ing,” he said. “There’s plen­ty go­ing on, and no­body is pay­ing at­ten­tion. In­no­cent peo­ple are dy­ing. When they say it’s drugs, it’s not drugs. It’s fish­er­men, in­no­cent peo­ple. And they’re not prov­ing that they find drugs.”

Hen­ry said he is al­so con­cerned about the war­ship com­ing in­to lo­cal wa­ters. “What are they com­ing to do? Is the same thing go­ing on? Noth­ing is chang­ing. So we’ll just sit and wait to see,” he said.

Miguel Phillip, who lives in Bonasse, said he, too, is wait­ing to see what hap­pens. “I’m home right now. It con­cerns me be­cause oth­er fish­er­men like my­self aren’t go­ing out. For me, it’s the first time I’ve seen a war­ship come here, and I’d like to see it my­self too,” he said.

He added that stu­dents from Lochmaben Ro­man Catholic School in Ce­dros have been of­fered the op­por­tu­ni­ty to tour the war­ship. Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath con­firmed that Lochmaben is the on­ly school in the coun­try cleared to tour the ship.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the school, class­es were in ses­sion. One par­ent said she had no con­cerns about the school tour.

“Once she comes back safe and every­thing is good, it’s all well and good,” a par­ent said.

In Au­gust, Lochmaben RC re­ceived re­pairs and up­grades to wa­ter, sew­er­age, and elec­tri­cal sys­tems through a part­ner­ship with the US Em­bassy.