WILLEMSTAD - Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas announced during the press conference today that the five fishermen who have been imprisoned in Venezuela since March 27, 2020 have been released.
It concerns five Curaçaoans. They were sailing on the open sea when the lockdown started. The fishermen were then detained in Venezuela's territorial waters.
According to Human Rights Defense Curaçao this concerns Evelio Evertsz born 11-5-1970 in Curaçao, Genaro Thode born 29-4-1958 in Bonaire living on Curaçao, Naoki Snijders born 18-12-1993 in Curaçao, Wolfang Accides Zavala Mar born on 28-05-1969 in Venezuela and resident of Curaçao and Davidson Gonzales born on 4-12-2000 in Curaçao.
The five fishermen received assistance from the Dutch Embassy. In February, Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs urged the Venezuelan authorities for a quick and fair trial.
It is still unclear how the release came about, but Pisas has indicated that he will provide more information about this at a later date.