Dozens of Venezue­lans gath­ered yes­ter­day in front of the Em­bassy of Trinidad and To­ba­go in Cara­cas to de­mand jus­tice for the death of a child who was shot dead by the Coast Guard while on a boat at­tempt­ing to trav­el to Trinidad.

“We are tired of Venezue­lans be­ing seen as noth­ing. We are look­ing for new op­por­tu­ni­ties else­where since the gov­ern­ment of Nicolás Maduro has not al­lowed us to move for­ward,” the youth sec­re­tary of the op­po­si­tion par­ty Primero Jus­ti­cia, Mer­ci, told re­porters.

The pro­test­ers, dressed in black, held cards con­demn­ing the killing and placed white ros­es on the ground in front of the Em­bassy as Venezue­lan po­lice kept guard.

Pro­test­ers claimed that “a moth­er has had to see her daugh­ter die in her arms” and won­dered “how is it pos­si­ble that these events con­tin­ue to hap­pen.”

“The in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty has not spo­ken and we are wait­ing for some events to hap­pen that pe­nalise what is hap­pen­ing be­cause there is pro­tec­tion for mi­grants and they are not do­ing any­thing to pro­tect them,” a spokesper­son stressed.

Women hold signs with a message that reads in Spanish: “To migrate is not a crime,” during a protest against T&T Coast Guard officers firing on a migrant boat, in front of the T&T Embassy, in Caracas, Venezuela, yesterday.

Ariana Cubillos

For her part, the na­tion­al youth sec­re­tary of the al­so op­po­si­tion Un Nue­vo Tiem­po (UNT), Ce­leste Pérez, de­mand­ed jus­tice, ar­gu­ing in the protest that the Coast Guard “mur­dered the Venezue­lan mi­nor mer­ci­less­ly and with­out any shame.”

“To­day we come to de­mand jus­tice for that Venezue­lan moth­er,” he claimed be­fore ex­press­ing hope that “those guilty of this atro­cious act will be ar­rest­ed.”

The Coast Guard has said that the boat en­tered the coun­try il­le­gal­ly and was or­dered to stop. How­ev­er, they said the boat dri­ver at­tempt­ed to ram the ves­sel, at which point the Coast Guard mem­bers opened fire.

They said that it was on­ly af­ter the boat stopped and they board­ed the ves­sel, they dis­cov­ered the il­le­gal mi­grants aboard, in­clud­ing the ba­by who was shot dead.

Mean­while, a group of UN agen­cies on Mon­day in a state­ment said they were “deeply sad­dened” by Sat­ur­day’s event.

“No mi­grant child should ever die, whether trav­el­ing with their par­ents or alone. No moth­er wants to put the lives of her chil­dren at risk on a small ship in the deep sea, un­less she has no oth­er op­tion,” said Jean Gough, re­gion­al di­rec­tor for UNICEF in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

A woman places a sign with a message that reads in Spanish: “We demand respect for the human rights of migrants”, in front of the Trinidad and Tobago Embassy, during a protest against Trinidad officers firing on a migrant boat, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. A Venezuelan baby died and the mother was injured over the weekend when Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard officers fired at a boat transporting migrants, authorities from the Caribbean nation said. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Ariana Cubillos

“Two in three Venezue­lans on the move are women and chil­dren. This trag­ic event is a stark re­minder that they are the most vul­ner­a­ble among the vul­ner­a­ble. They de­serve spe­cial at­ten­tion, pro­tec­tion and safe­ty - any­where and any­time.”

Juan Guaidó, leader of the US-backed Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion, on Twit­ter de­scribed the shoot­ing as “un­jus­ti­fied,” while David Smolan­sky, the com­mis­sion­er of the sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States for the Venezue­lan mi­grant and refugee cri­sis, called on Trinidad and To­ba­go to in­ves­ti­gate the sit­u­a­tion.