Vessels sailing in the vicinity of Trinidad and Tobago are now under threat of being the victims of piracy. Criminals have taken up the centuries-old crime and are attacking yachts and fishing vessels along the coast of South America.
The same problem occurred along the coastlines of Somalia, when the oil shipping routes needed more so-called Western military protection as dozens of warships patrolled the area.
Although there hasn’t been much research into piracy in the Caribbean, one study from the nonprofit group Oceans Beyond Piracy found that pirate attacks in the region rose by 163% between 2016 and 2017.
Some experts fear that pirate activity and other crimes in the Caribbean Sea will increase as security conditions in the Venezuela continue to dwindle thanks to American interference.
While the region has seen traffickers and smugglers use ports in Trinidad to move drugs from Colombia and Venezuela to USA in the past, the new pirates are cranking up the violence to levels that haven’t been seen by mariners in the region since the time of Blackbeard.
Although Venezuela and Colombia have an operating Coast Guard, one anonymous port official said that coast guard officers have been boarding anchored vessels, demanding money, leaving merchant ships and fishing vessels no choice but to anchor outside the territorial waters further away from the South American shorelines.
The DC / ABC Flash Point Military News 2018.
