It was decomposing and after law enforcement officials in the neighbouring country do their investigations, Persaud will be buried there, his employer Deodat Bissoon said.
Persaud, 39, of Parika Façade, East Bank Essequibo was missing and believed to have drowned after pirates forced him and his crew into the waters off the Venezuelan Coast in a vicious attack last Thursday.
Persaud and a three-man crew left Parika last week Tuesday on the fishing boat ‘Sudesh’ to fish in the Atlantic Ocean. On Thursday, they were attacked by pirates and forced into the waters. The pirates had sprayed sections of the boat with fuel and set it alight to force the men out. One, Mohan Singh, called ‘Pepie,’ is hospitalised in Venezuela after suffering major burns.
The three crewmembers were saved after clinging to a buoy for hours. They said Persaud drowned. Bissoon told Stabroek News yesterday that he received the news late Monday night that Persaud’s body was recovered at an area called Kamarito. He said it was found at around 4pm and was in a state of decomposition.
Meanwhile, yesterday Singh’s wife Faziela Khan said Singh is hospitalised in Bolivar, Venezuela with burns on his legs and feet. The upper part of his leg is “cooked,” she said. He cannot walk, she added. “The pain too much. He want me to go over,” Khan said. She spoke to her husband yesterday and he told her he was the last to jump out of the burning boat after being trapped in the cabin. According to her, even though Persaud was a boat captain for many years, when he went in the water, the crewmen saw that he could not swim well.
Khan plans to leave for Venezuela later this week to look after her husband. She said after the crewmen were rescued by the Venezuelan coast guard, they were taken to a floating medical ship for treatment then transferred to the mainland. However, the hospital in the Venezuelan city of Port Ordaz was not equipped to treat Singh’s burns and he was transferred to Bolivar.
