TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO INVESTIGATING DEATH OF VENEZUELAN BABY

By a staff reporter: 

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds expressed his condolences to the Venezuelan family of 9 month old baby who was killed in an encounter with the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard on Saturday.

Responding to questions posed by Opposition Senator Wade Mark in the Senate on Tuesday regarding the incident, Minister Hinds gave assurances that the matter is being investigated by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard as well as the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service

Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard officers fired upon a Venezuelan migrant vessel off the south-east coast on Saturday night, an act that killed a nine-month-old baby boy on board the migrant boat. The child’s mother was also shot. The mother was among the migrants captured after the boat was intercepted. The baby boy died before reaching a hospital.

The Coast Guard said its personnel fired on the engines of the migrant boat because it attempted to ram its vessel, and officers were fearful for their lives and acting in self-defence. The incident occurred shortly before midnight Saturday in the waters off Trinidad’s south-east coast and involved the TTS Scarborough, one of two Cape Class patrol vessels commissioned two months ago and deployed to protect the country’s maritime borders.

Venezuela's government including president Nicholas Maduro has urged T&T authorities to carry out an "exhaustive investigation" to clarify the death of the child. The Catholic Commission for Social Justice, the Archdiocese’s Ministry for Migrants and Refugees and the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights also supported a call for an investigation into the death of the baby while offering condolences to the family.