WHY THE SECRECY ABOUT THE RAISING OF THE MV BARIMA?

Grieving relatives, survivors, Guyanese at home and abroad have, for the past 100 days been calling for the MV Barima to be raised. After months of foot-dragging and delay, the Government finally announced that BK International had won the contract to raise the wreck. The Government never announced when the work would begin, and Guyanese learned that the raising of the wreck had begun only when a man died. On October 28, Luis Martinez, a Venezuelan diver, died at the wreck site. Five days later, it was BK, not the Government, that confirmed he died working on the Barima. Why this secrecy?

The law requires notice, yet no Notice to Mariners has been posted on MARAD’s website to tell mariners that the raising of the wreck has begun. Nothing has been said to the grieving relatives. Nothing has been said to the survivors. Nothing has been said to defence counsel for the three men charged with murder. The MV Barima is the key piece of evidence in their clients’ case, but that evidence is being raised, and their lawyers were not told.

Full coverageLuis Martinez Dies During MV Barima Salvage Operation off Essequibo Coast8 reports

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No one may raise or break up a sunken wreck in Guyana without the written permission of the Receiver of Wreck. To do so without that permission is a crime. The Maritime Administration Department has a legal duty to warn mariners and the public of any operation that affects safety at sea. And everything brought up from that hull, the cargo and the belongings of the dead, must be published by the Receiver within forty-eight hours. So where is the permission? Where is the warning to Mariners from MARAD?