Work starts early for the fishermen of Chichiriviche de la Costa, a remote village on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, some two hours of unpaved driving from the capital Caracas.
On Thursday, Eduard Ulloa, 47, was at the shore before six in the morning, ready to prepare his boat for the day’s catch.
A US strike on a Venezuelan speedboat allegedly carrying drugs that killed 11 people just a couple of days ago has created big waves in the world of geopolitics, fueling suspicions in Caracas that Washington is trying to topple the regime of President Nicolas Maduro – a man accused by the US of trafficking drugs (a charge he vehemently denies) and on whose head a $50 million bounty rests.
That deadly strike, which followed the deployment of several US warships to the Caribbean on what Washington says is an effort to combat drug cartels, took place on the same seas on which the fishermen of Chichiriviche ply their trade every day.
Yet, unlike their president – who has responded to the US deployment by mobilizing some 4.5 million militiamen to defend the country from what he has described as the “biggest threat seen on our continent in the last 100 years” – these fishermen seem untroubled.
