Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill says it is “highly probable” that the boat containing bodies which was found in Nicaraguan waters on Monday is the same which local authorities lost sight of after it was discovered floating offshore Guyana more than two weeks ago.
“It is highly probable that it is the same boat. We have every reason to believe it is the same boat,” Edghill told Stabroek News in an invited comment yesterday.
According to Edghill, authorities here have not been able to engage their counterparts in Nicaragua as yet to be provided with details.
He said while effort are ongoing to have an engagement, it is suspected that it is the same boat.
Edghill explained that details about the two discoveries are very similar. “The time it is suspected since they were decomposed, the number of bodies and the description of the boat are all similar,” he noted.
If the vessel is not the one which disappeared from Guyana, Edghill said “then we have a worrying situation of bodies drifting in the Caribbean”.
An unmarked boat, which contained a number of decomposed bodies was found floating about 120 km offshore Georgetown on the afternoon on February 15th.
Following the discovery, an inter-agency task force comprising members of the Guyana Defence Force coast guard and the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) was established to conduct investigations.
It was initially stated that efforts were being made to have the boat towed to shore.
However, during an emergency press conference the following night, Edghill had reported that the authorities had lost sight of the boat.
With the unfavourable weather patterns at sea, he had said that it is unclear what has happened. He pointed out that the boat could have sunk or drifted in another direction.
The Ministry in a press statement had subsequently said that officials in Guyana had contacted their counterpart in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) to be on the lookout for the boat. The statement had said that it is possible that the boat might have drifted towards T&T due to the direction of the ocean current.
Emails were also sent to several sister organisations seeking their assistance in identifying the boat and the remains of those on board, the statement noted.
Edghill said Nicaragua was one of the countries which was alerted to be on the lookout for the vessel. “It is no surprise that the boat has shown up just off the coast of Nicaragua,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press (AP) reported that Nicaraguan authorities found the bodies of six people, apparently migrants, in a small boat drifting off its Caribbean coast.
The Interior Ministry said a Republic of Guinea passport belonging to a 31-year-old man was found on one of the bodies. The passport had no Nicara-guan entry stamp in it.
AP said that the boat was found drifting about a mile (1 1/2 kilometers) out to sea on Monday near Cayo Las Palomas.
The ministry said an initial examination indicated all those aboard apparently died of dehydration or heatstroke, and that they probably died about a month ago.
