Another yacht assault in Venezuela

Created by doina. Last modified on 2005-05-26 11:33:16
Contributors:
Topic: Piracy
Countries: Venezuela

The catamaran "Madam", a Bahia 46, with owners Bruno and his wife
Catherine on board, was anchored in Carenero, Venezuela, a hundred
yards or so from the Carenero Yacht Club.

On May 13 2005, at 2am, we were boarded by two young local guys, there
was probably a third one waiting in a small boat. They stole
binoculars, shoes and some portable electronics. Bruno woke-up and
fought with them, taking from them a bat and a hammer they were using
as weapons. One of the two thieves wanted to kill him ("lo mato!")
with a knife but the other said to leave. They jumped in the water and
left, taking the gear and leaving their knife in the cockpit.

We then heard a shot and impact of a projectile in the water close to
the boat. We called for help on CH16: after some time, some local
"vigilancia" relayed the call in better spanish but no authority
responded or showed up. Only the private guards of the nearby hotel
called us and told us we could come anchor a hundred yards closer to
them. We later learned that the Guardia Nacional sent a patrol on
shore, but had no boat to come close to us.

Despite numerous "mayday" calls between 2:10am and 6:00am no authority
responded on CH16.

Around 7am in the morning, Bruno went to see the Guardia Nacional
asho they finally made it to the boat at 10:15am, took our
deposition and the evidences of armed robbery left by the thieves: a
big knife and a 3ft bat. Later came an officer from the "Capitania de
Puerto Carenero" who wrote a report of the incident. To this hour,
both have been very reluctant to give us any copy, even that of our
own deposition.

We invite you to broadcast this information as widely as possible in
the hope to get more efficient reactions from the Venezuelian
authorities.

Bruno and Catherine Millet