Dying V'zuelan accused deported

A VENEZUELAN man, who was committed to stand trial in 2018 on charges of trafficking of cocaine but who has cancer with only a few months to live, has been granted his own bail and ordered to be deported back to his country so he can receive palliative medical care.

Master Nalini Singh on Thursday varied bail for Jose Salazar, 60, who was warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), Mt Hope. He had surgery in July 2020.

Singh granted Salazar his own bail in the sum of $10,000 because of his “extenuating medical circumstances” and the quarantine status of the enforcement unit of the Immigration Division’s north office.

She also ordered that bail be taken at the EWMSC and once bail documents are finalised, he is to be immediately released into the care of his attorney, Mario Merritt, who was also ordered to accompany Salazar directly to the Chaguaramas port where he is to be handed over to a Capt Cecilio Hernandez.

Newsday understands that Salazar’s brother arranged with a Venezuelan fishing boat captain, who received permission to enter TT’s waters to sell fish, to accommodate him on the boat on its return to Venezuela.

Salazar was charged in July 2016, and was committed to stand trial on March 8, 2018. He was first denied bail by a magistrate on August 15, 2018 and on September 13, 2019, he applied to the High Court for bail.

He was granted bail in the sum of $350,000, with a cash alternative of $50,000, with the conditions he was to report to the immigration division once bail was accessed and to provide the court with a Venezuelan address.

Salazar again applied for a variation of bail on November 25, 2019, and bail was reduced to $25,000. It was again reduced after his latest application for a further variation along with an order that he be released on his own recognizance, which is a means of securing the release of someone in custody who is unable to post bail because of poverty.

In his bail application, Salazar’s attorneys said he was in need of further oncological management entailing chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and was unable to be referred to the national radiotherapy centre for further treatment since it was not available to non-nationals.

On March 29, one of Salazar’s doctors contacted his attorneys telling them his condition was “very grave” and he only had months to live. They also said he needed palliative care which he was unable to access because he is a non-national. The application added that Salazar was unable to access his bail so that he could return home for treatment.

The doctors who treated Salazar at the EWMSC testified virtually at the bail hearing before Singh.

Also representing him was attorney Karunaa Bisramsingh.

Newsday understands Salazar’s attorneys were working feverishly to ensure he made it to the fishing boat before it left TT’s waters on Thursday. He was put on the boat just before 5 pm and video footage of him boarding the vessel was sent to the court as proof that its orders were followed despite Salazar not being in possession of travel documents.

Salazar was charged with possession of 98.5 kilogrammes of cocaine which had an estimated street value of $45 million.

In 2016, the Coast Guard in a release said officers, while on routine patrol on the north coast, at about 1 am, intercepted a pirogue. Eight Venezuelan men were arrested and after searching the boat, they allegedly found 84 packets of cocaine, weighing 98.5 kilogrammes.

At the time, the Coast Guard said it was the second-largest single cocaine drug bust since August 2005, when they seized 1,749.09 kilogrammes of cocaine at Monos Island.