Slain Venezuelan showered with kisses at funeral

Several weeping mourners showered slain Venezuelan Charlys Agosto Polo Mata with hugs and kisses at his funeral on Monday .

The 22-year-old father of one, originally from Tucupita, was cremated at the Waterloo cremation site in a simple white coffin after a service at the family’s rented home at Calcutta No2 in Freeport.

At the cremation site, mourners, including his mother, identified only Mayito, wept openly. She returned to Trinidad a few days ago to attend the funeral.

Like other mourners, the mother kissed him on his cheeks. As if she could not bear to see his body burning, she walked away before the pyre was lit and watched from a distance.

The survivor of the knife attack, Omar Ramos, as well as the police, also attended.

The Rev Clifford Rawlins of the Diego Martin United Church, who officiated at the family’s home, called on mourners to trust in God to overcome their challenges.

He said death comes in many ways, and people do not know when and in what way.

Rawlins, who spoke in Spanish, also repeatedly called on the bereaved family to have hope.

He quoted from the Bible, saying Jesus wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus.

"He shares that solidarity with us in our times of grief," Rawlins said.

Like many other migrants, Rawlins said, Mata came to a new land for a better life and to help his family back home.

"For them to experience this, to me, is more devastating than someone who died in his/her native land. It is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

"That is where hope comes in. God sees and knows all things, and somehow something will work out somewhere."

Mata was stabbed to death in Freeport on November 21. His cousin Ramos was also stabbed but survived.

Relatives believe a long-standing feud that originated in Venezuela led to the deadly attack. Mata, Ramos and two other Venezuelan men had minutes earlier left a bar at Calcutta No 1. The violence erupted as they were returning to their apartment in Calcutta No 2.

No one has been arrested, and investigations are ongoing.