Prayer vigil for missing Cedros fishermen on April 20

FAMILY of five Cedros fishermen who went missing on February 24 will hold a walk and candlelight prayer vigil on April 20, with the hope of renewing interest in the case and for some form of closure.

The walk is scheduled to begin at 5.30 pm, from the home of one of the missing men, and end at the Fullarton Beach.

The search has been called off, but efforts are being made to locate and repatriate one body which was discovered on Venezuela’s Maturin coast on March 3 and is believed to be one of the missing men.

Vallence Rambharat of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team told the Newsday the family contacted him earlier this week to assist in having the body found and repatriated.

Rambharat said while the body is yet to be identified, his contacts in Pedernales told him an autopsy was scheduled to be performed on the remains on March 6.

Since then, he said, they have lost track of where it is being kept.

He said the families sought his assistance as they did not know what to do. He said he contacted Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne and after a discussion, the minister agreed to assign an officer who was instrumental in having the body of a Guayaguyare fisherman repatriated, almost a year after he and his colleagues also disappeared on a fishing expedition to Venezuela.

“That officer is already on the job, in communication with the authorities in Venezuela to find out whether the body was moved to another place after it was recovered from the water, or whether it was disposed or buried.”

MP for Point Fortin Kennedy Richards has also been asked to help find the body.

On February 24, David Seepaul, Devanand Seepaul, Gonzalez Ali, Shiva Rampersad and Jeremiah Pasqual left Fullarton Village to fish at sea. They have not been seen since.