El Salvador’s Navy rescued 16 Ecuadorians whose vessel caught fire a week ago in Pacific waters near the Galápagos archipelago, Ecuador’s Navy reported. The boat had departed from the port of Manta in southwestern Ecuador on March 2 and was sailing near the Galápagos when a fire alert was reported.
After a week of searching, El Salvador’s Navy said Tuesday that it was carrying out a humanitarian operation to transport 16 castaways, all Ecuadorian nationals, who had been rescued at sea. Two men with foot injuries and burns were taken first to the naval base in La Unión, in southeastern El Salvador, so they could receive hospital care.
The other 14 Ecuadorians will arrive in La Unión in the coming hours so authorities can verify their health condition and legal status, it added. From Ecuador, Navy Captain Diego Criollo confirmed that they were the missing fishermen. It has been confirmed that the names match those of the rescued crew members on board, Criollo said while sharing a communication from El Salvador’s Navy.
Relatives celebrated the rescue. I’m happy because they have finally given us news, Rosa Holguín, whose husband and son were on the boat, told reporters. Through tears, she described the horrendous pain she felt after their disappearance.
The fire occurred in the middle of an anti-drug trafficking offensive by the Ecuadorian government with support from the United States, leading families to suspect that the fishermen were victims of a bombing. Authorities have not commented on that possibility.
Anti-narcotics operations are concentrated along Ecuador’s coast, where 70 percent of the cocaine from Colombia and Peru, the world’s leading producers of the drug, is shipped out. Since September, the United States has also been attacking suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, leaving about 150 dead.
