The letter sent 15 by executive vice-president Delcy Rodriguez, included to the Organization of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture and narrated the events that occurred on the 12th of the same month against a fishing boat with a Venezuelan flag, sailing 48 nautical miles to the northwest of the island La Blanquilla, in the jurisdictional waters of the South American country.

Rodriguez published this month on Telegram the letter in which he reviewed that the vessel Carmen Rosa was intercepted “in an illegal and hostile manner” by a destroyer of the American Navy, identified as USS Jasan Dunham (DDG-109).

The Minister of Hydrocarbons also required that the American destroyer be equipped with war weapons, “including powerful cruise missiles, and be manned by highly trained military personnel, despite the fact that the fishermen” did not carry any natural weapons and were manned by new humble tuna fishermen.”

It is clear that, following the illegal interception, the American warship deployed 18 military personnel with large weapons who “boarded and occupied the small and harmless vessel for eight hours, an action that deprived them of freedom, making it impossible to communicate and develop their authorized operations with normality.

The vice-governor declared that this operation of a war ship with military command personnel against a civilian fishing vessel, “results in a clearly disproportionate act, which violates the rules and principles that guide maritime navigation control operations”.

Finally, it focuses on the “serious violation” committed by United States authorities and demands “a firm pronouncement of condemnation” against this act of hostility and aggression against Venezuelan fishermen that has a negative impact on the exercise of the economic activity of fishing and the protection of their rights.

ro/jcd