CARACAS, (Reuters) – Around midnight on February 23, Eulalio Bravo, a marine electrician, was dozing in his rack aboard the San Ramon, an oil tanker anchored off the coast of Venezuela.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps pounding along the passageway outside. His captain, Jaime Herrera, cried for help.
“Be still!” an unfamiliar voice ordered.
A gun fired.
By the time Bravo and eight other shipmates emerged to see what had happened, the captain lay dead, a gunshot in the back of his head. Herrera’s stateroom had been pillaged, drawers flung open, his bunk overturned. The killers were gone, as were thousands of dollars the captain kept under lock and key, according to crew members interviewed by Reuters.
