Venezuelan fishermen fear as US attacks boats in Caribbean Sea

Wilder Fernández caught four good-sized fish in the murky waters of a creek north of Lake Maracaibo.

The contents of his net will serve as dinner for his small team before they set off to fish again in the evening.

But this daily task is something he has recently come to dread.

Mr Fernández, who has been a fisherman for 13 years, admits he now fears his job could become fatal.

He fears he will not die at the hands of nighttime attackers, a threat that fishermen like him have faced in the past, but rather from attacks by foreign powers.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” he said of the deployment of U.S. warships, fighter jets, submarines and thousands of U.S. troops in waters north of the Venezuelan coast.

US troops patrol the Caribbean as part of a military operation targeting suspected ‘narco-terrorists’, which the White House says are linked to the Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro.

Since last month, the United States has carried out at least six attacks on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean, with the most recent attack taking place on Thursday.

At least 27 people have died, but Thursday’s strike appears to be the first time any survivors have boarded the boat.

The United States has accused the killings of drug smuggling but has so far provided no evidence. Experts pointed out that this strike may be illegal under international law.

Tensions between the United States and Venezuela escalated further Wednesday when U.S. President Donald Trump said he was considering an attack on Venezuelan soil.

He also confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela.

Mr. Fernández has the latest news.

His wife has been trying to persuade him to leave Lake Maracaibo, despite the United States saying the strike took place thousands of kilometers from where he fishes.

Every day she begs him to stop fishing. “She told me to look for another job, but I have nowhere to go,” he explains.

He doesn’t rule out the possibility that his boat could have crashed “accidentally.”

“Of course it’s a concern. You don’t know, I think about it every day,” says the father of three.

A day after BBC Mundo’s phone call with Fernández, Trump announced that “six narco-terrorists” had been killed in U.S. airstrikes in international waters off the coast of Venezuela.

President Trump added, “Intelligence officials have confirmed that this vessel is trafficking drugs and is associated with an illegal narco-terrorism network.”

The Trump administration accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel of the Suns drug trafficking organization and is offering a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to his arrest.

Maduro, whose legitimacy as Venezuela’s president has been internationally disputed since last year’s disputed election, has denied the cartel charges. He dismissed it as an attempt by the White House to oust him.

“We will never become a colony of the United States,” the Venezuelan president said in his second televised speech criticizing the United States in as many days.

Maduro also claimed that the CIA has been operating in Venezuela for a long time.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino warned Venezuelans to prepare for “the worst.”

After five F-35 fighter jets entered Venezuelan airspace on October 2, General Padrino said his country was facing a “serious threat.” He warned that it could include “aerial bombings, naval blockades, undercover commando landings on Venezuelan beaches or jungles, drone swarms, sabotage and targeted killings of leaders.”

Venezuela also criticized the United States’ “growing threat” at the UN Security Council last week.

In response, U.S. representative John Kelley, who attended the UN meeting, emphasized that the United States “will not waver in our actions to protect our country from narco-terrorists.”

Meanwhile, attacks in the Caribbean have undermined the safety of Venezuelan fishermen, laments Jennifer Nava, spokeswoman for the Fishermen’s Council of El Bajo, Venezuela’s Giulia state.

Mr Nava told BBC Mundo that people involved in the fishing industry feared they would be harmed in gun battles between US troops and suspected drug traffickers.

Mr Nava argues that the additional risks faced by fishermen could lead some of them to fall into the hands of drug and weapons smugglers who seek to recruit people to transport illegal cargo.

“Some of these people are approached by human traffickers,” she explains, adding that a downturn in the fishing industry could make fishermen more vulnerable to such approaches.

There is definitely tension among fishermen on Lake Maracaibo.

Most of the crew of two small fishing boats owned by Usbaldo Albornoz refused to work when news of the American strike broke.

Mr Albornoz, who has been involved in the fishing industry for 32 years, calls the situation “worrying”.

“They didn’t want to go out to sea to fish.” He spoke to BBC Mundo from San Francisco de Giulia Beach, located on the northern shore of Lake Maracaibo where it meets the Gulf of Venezuela.

The fear of being hit by an American attack, Mr. Albornoz explains, is just the latest in a slew of dangers he and his men have faced, including piracy, oil spills and declining revenues in recent years.

The Trump administration said in a recently leaked memo to U.S. lawmakers that it determined it was involved in a drug trafficking organization and a “non-international armed conflict.”

The White House has responded to criticism from legal experts who say attacks on boats in the Caribbean are illegal, describing them as “self-defense.”

But in addition to the fear many people are experiencing, there is also a feeling of defiance.

In late September, hundreds of fishermen on dozens of boats headed to Lake Maracaibo to support Maduro’s government and protest the deployment of U.S. troops.

Jose Luzardo was one of them. The spokesman for El Bajo fishermen, who has been fishing for nearly 40 years, accused the United States of “pointing its cannons at our Venezuelans.”

He said he was not afraid and would give his life to protect his country.

“The Trump administration has backed us into a corner. If we have to give our lives to defend our government, we will do it, and this will all be over,” he says.

He insists that what fishermen want is “peace and work,” not war, but becomes visibly upset when he mentions the “military barrier” the United States has placed in the Caribbean.

Last month, the Venezuelan government mobilized militia members and urged those who had not yet joined the civilian army to do so.

According to Fisheries Minister Juan Carlos Loyo, more than 16,000 fishermen complied with his request.

“I’m ready to go into battle wherever I’m needed,” said Luzardo, who has been fishing since he was 11 years old.

“If they (America) want to kill us, so be it, but we are not afraid.”