CARACAS, Venezuela — A Venezuelan official confirmed Monday that a small boat carrying at least 20 people sank in Caribbean coastal waters last week, with most of its passengers missing in the second sea tragedy in a month involving Venezuelan migrants taking great risks to escape their country’s humanitarian crisis. Earlier sketchy reports of an accident said as many as 32 people were on board the boat. Last month, a boat carrying Venezuelans sank in the same area. “There’s no trace of them on the sea,” said Villegas, who is a ship captain. While the majority of Venezuelan migrants have traveled by land into neighboring Colombia and Brazil, overloaded fishing boats sometimes smuggle people to nearby Caribbean islands.

Source: Washington Post May 20, 2019 16:21 UTC