Precis

Pirates of the Caribbean are back.
In the tropical waters around Trinidad and Tobago, pirates are making waking waves again, with a recent spate of kidnappings, shootings, robberies and even murders.
Marlon Sookoo, a fisherman from a sleepy village on the southern tip of Trinidad, has first-hand experience of how ruthless the pirates can be.
"They hold you. Some take you for ransom. You have to pay the ransom otherwise they will kill you. Some will take the boat and engine and throw you out."
He's one of a number of seafarers who've been attacked in recent years, a result largely of the collapse of the neighbouring state of Venezuela, which has left millions of its citizens desperately poor.
Foreign Correspondent reporter Andy Park visits this tiny Caribbean nation during its peak party season, the riotous festival of Carnival.
While there's much cause for celebration, he finds the laid back, self-proclaimed "rainbow people" of Trinidad and Tobago struggling to cope with the fallout from Venezuela's failed state.
Famous for cricket and calypso, the tiny islands are dealing with an increase in illegal migration, gang crime and also, piracy on-sea.
Kennier Berra Lopez is also a victim.
A Venezuelan refugee in Trinidad, Kennier arranged for his family to escape their country by boat but pirates intercepted them at sea and now Kennier's family have disappeared.
"I don't think Carnival is a happy time. All the time, day and night. I still have faith that [my family] are going to appear," Kennier says.

Carnival GVs

Music

00:00

ANDY PARK, Reporter: It’s Carnival time in the Caribbean.

00:07

Kemba at Carnival

KEMBA: We party, we drink, we have fun, we be ourselves! Yeah, mon.

00:11

Carnival GVs

Music

00:16

ANDY PARK, Reporter: This colourful mashup is a long way from its Catholic roots, just one of the colonial cultures the trade winds washed ashore here.

00:23

Music

00:31

TYAJANE, Miss Caribbean:  Carnival is really a celebration of all of who we are. We have had a history of indentureship and slavery and we have morphed that into something beautiful.

00:39

Park driving on island / Island views

Music

00:51

ANDY PARK, Reporter: A month before the global coronavirus outbreak, I’m in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, where lately,

00:54

Coast guard ship on patrol

the waves are bringing in a perilous old adversary.

01:00

Riots

Venezuela’s demise, and piracy on the waters nearby, have shaken

01:09

Steel drum playing/ cricket

the otherwise laid back home of steelpan, calypso and Windies cricket.

01:12

Park on boat with Marlon

Andy:  "Why do we have to be so careful here?"

Marlon:  "Because you can't trust anyone."

01:22

MARLON:  You have to pay the ransom otherwise they will kill you.

01:27

Photo. Fisherman being held at gunpoint

Music

01:30

Andy to camera. Super:
Reporter
Andy Park

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Once the dominion of swashbuckling buccaneers the likes of Captain Blackbeard, now, centuries later, and Pirates of the Caribbean are back in these tropical waters. But you see, today’s Jack Sparrow is coming from just 14 kilometres offshore, and they're bringing their troubles with them.

01:32

Title:
Pirates of the Caribbean

Music

01:51

Blue Devils Super:
Trinidad and Tobago

02:00

Village in hills preparing for Blue Devil masquerade

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Dusk in the hills behind Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, Port of Spain. The lush valleys here are filled with the demented sounds of the Blue Devils preparing to run wild.

00:21

It’s a ghoulish tradition known as 'Devil Mas', or devil masquerade – blue, the distinctive colour adopted by the young folk here.

02:42

Andy and man paint clothes blue

Andy: "Why is the blue, Devil's Blue? What's the importance of blue?"

Man:  "In Trinidad and Tobago our culture is more blue itself. We do something different to what Grenada are doing."

Andy: "Yeah, right. This is my first Devil Mas – should I be worried? Should I be scared?"

Man: "Up to you."

02:51

Kemba wearing mask

KEMBA:  During the course of the year, we work hard and during carnival time, that is the time we let loose of ourselves and we call it “freedom of life”.

03:19

Kemba shrieking at children/ Men shrieking

03:29

Andy to camera

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  So everybody has come out here to see the blue devils walk down the hill, and like all good Catholic festivals it’s about sin and repentance, and over the last year here in Trinidad and Tobago there’s more sin that ever that needs cleansing.

03:49

Kemba and others dance in Blue Devil outfits

Peaks in illegal migration, gang crime, violence at sea, and murders, worry young Trinidadians like Kemba.

KEMBA:  Hearing about the pirates and stuff, it got us frightened.

04:09

Kemba

I am trying to forget about the crime, so I am thankful for life and I’m trying to forget about that and enjoy life. So here I am as a blue devil showing you how to enjoy your life.

04:25

Blue Devils parade

04:41

ANDY PARK, Reporter: On the water surrounding this island paradise, pirates are a very real threat, a threat the government here takes seriously.

04:52

Coast Guard boat

Music

05:02

Andy boards Coast Guard boat

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Today, we’ve been invited to go on patrol with the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. Now, this is a privilege not afforded to many people – in waters which are frankly too dangerous to go by ourselves. It’s the sort of place where it’s shoot first, and ask questions later.

05:09

Music

05:25

Andy greets Commander Polo

Andy: "Hello, sir."

Polo: "Welcome on board."

Andy: "Thank you."

ANDY PARK, Reporter: The top brass in charge of patrolling this vast and porous sea border is Commander Don Polo.

05:28

Commander Polo

COMMANDER DON POLO: Everything heading north from South America has to come around Trinidad and Tobago.  We are quite a focal point for both licit and illicit traffic in the region. The main challenge is that the border between Trinidad and Venezuela is very, very close to the shore. In some areas it's just four nautical miles. What that means, is on a fast boat, you can close the distance from the border to land in a matter of minutes.

05:39

Views of land from Coast Guard boat

ANDY PARK, Reporter: This narrow waterway between Venezuela and Trinidad truly is pirate waters. This is the site of many murders,

06:12

Andy to camera

kidnappings, robberies, and the tragic shipwreck of two boats carrying Venezuelans on their way to a new life in Trinidad. Now, as to who’s responsible for these crimes, certainly it’s criminal elements in Venezuela, but there’s also evidence of criminal elements in Trinidad as well.

06:21

Coast Guard patrol

There have been 14 reported cases piracy here since 2018, targeting fishermen, yachts and passenger boats. More still go unreported.

06:47

Lieutenant Commander Shelly Ann Marshall on boat. Small Coast Guard boat in pursuit

Lieutenant Commander Shelly Ann Marshall has just spotted an unknown vessel.

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER SHELLY ANN MARSHALL:  We’ll ask for all the documents. We’ll make sure that everything that they have on their documents…

ANDY: I can see your vessel is chasing now.

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER SHELLY ANN MARSHALL:  Exactly. We do have at this time 026, our interceptor, is going to approach this vessel and do interrogation.

06:59

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  What are the kinds of boats and the kinds of contraband you’re finding aboard them out here?

07:21

Andy and Marshall watch pursuit

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER SHELLY ANN MARSHALL:  Any vessel can be carrying drugs or guns. Any vessel. Some of the contraband you might find – marijuana, you might find cocaine, you might find guns, and even persons.

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  People?

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER SHELLY ANN MARSHALL: Yes, sir.

07:26

Venezuela riots. Super:
Venezuela

07:41

ANDY PARK, Reporter: The rise in crime on the water is linked the worsening Venezuelan crisis nearby. This has taken the Trinidad and Tobago by surprise.

07:47

Venezuelan refugees

With 90 per cent of Venezuelans living in poverty, some four million have fled abroad to escape political repression, food shortages and a near total economic collapse.

08:04

Heidi walks

Heidi Diquez is an activist for Venezuelans in Trinidad. She says Venezuelan arrivals grew her rapidly to an estimated 35 to 40 thousand.

08:19

HEIDI DIQUEZ:  We started seeing more and more of Venezuelans coming in. Coming in to buy food and buying medication and going to Venezuela, and then started seeing them in bars trying to work, restaurants and what not,

08:31

Heidi

getting exposed to being detained.

08:46

Venezuelan refugees arrive in Trinidad and Tobago

ANDY PARK, Reporter: The Trinidad and Tobago Government’s brief amnesty last year granted adults temporary work rights, but their children – some 2000 – are not allowed access to education.

08:48

HEIDI DIQUEZ:  Parents want their kids to go to school, because this is not ending. You're going to have a population

09:02

Heidi

of uneducated kids in the next five years.

ANDY PARK, Reporter: That sounds like a time bomb.

HEIDI DIQUEZ:  It is terrible.  

09:07

Children shots

You know Trinidad has only one point something million people. This is smaller than a big barrio in Caracas and you can't control this. It's hard to believe.

09:12

Police/ military presence on street

Music

09:25

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Venezuelans who come to Trinidad take huge risks crossing the water.

09:36

Andy to camera

The Venezuelan man I am on the way to meet now came himself, and then six months later, arranged for his family to join him. But what happened next, will haunt him forever.

09:46

Andy walks to visit Kennier

Music

09:57

Kennier on beach looking out to sea

KENNIER LOPEZ:  I don’t think Carnival is a happy time. 

10:04

Kennier interview

When I look at the ocean, I ask myself, what happened? What happened that night? Is my family is alive or dead?

10:09

Kennier looks at photos of family on phone

ANDY PARK, Reporter: 25-year-old Venezuelan refugee Kennier Berra Lopez has been waiting for any news of his family for almost a year now.

KENNIER LOPEZ:  Where I am from, everything was extremely expensive. I couldn’t find nappies for my daughter, milk and all those things, medicine. 

10:26

Kennier interview

Back then and today, Venezuela is in a bad place. I imagined a future where I could offer my family something safe and stable.  I haven’t been able to provide that to them yet.

10:48

Kennier looks at photos of family on phone

ANDY PARK, Reporter: His family paid a Venezuelan boat captain to take them to Trinidad illegally in May last year, including his father, sister, uncle, his two small children and his 8-month pregnant wife.

"When was the last time you saw your family?"

11:10

Kennier interview

KENNIER LOPEZ: She sent me a photo of my son and my daughter, looking at the ocean. She says, "We are on our way. I’m hungry." I told her "Don’t worry my love, I have food here for you."

11:30

Beach shots

ANDY PARK, Reporter: What happened next, aboard the boat named the Ana Maria, that night is as murky as the waters in which she was last seen.

11:56

Kennier interview

KENNIER LOPEZ:  They began their journey to Trinidad, and that’s when an exchange between pirates happened. So they threw out Alberto Abreu who supposedly is the only survivor.

12:07

Photo. People in water

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Boat driver Alberto Abreu later posted a video online, in which he says the boat began to sink and he swam for help, and never saw the passengers again.

12:24

Abreu video

Alberto Abreu:  "My people, I’m also in pain. I also had family on that boat, and it hurts me knowing those parent left their children waiting for them, given the economic crisis that we have in Venezuela.

12:35

Kennier shows photo of family

ANDY PARK, Reporter: This was the last photo taken of Kennier’s family. He holds on to the hope they could have been kidnapped by pirates and might still be alive.

12:50

Kennier interview

"What do you think happened to your family on the sea?"

13:03

KENNIER LOPEZ: I don’t know.  I haven’t seen their corpses, I can’t say that they are…

13:06

Kennier shows tattoo

ANDY PARK, Reporter: All that he has left of his family is a tattoo bearing their initials.

13:14

Kennier leave home and walks/ Drone shots of island /beach

Music

13:23

Fishermen

ANDY PARK, Reporter: It’s not just migrants who are fearful of disappearing at sea. On the far southern tip of Trinidad,

13:36

Marlon beside boat

local fisherman Marlon Sookoo is a descendant of the East Indian plantation workers brought to Trinidad by the British. He’s seen what pirates are capable of up close.

13:46

Fishermen

Music

13:57

Marlon with fishermen / launches fishing boat

MARLON SOOKOO:  My livelihood is fishing.

14:05

I born and grew up in fishing. My father was a fisherman. My parents cannot afford to send me to finish up my school, so I come on the beach and I look for my own dollar.

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Dwindling fish stocks have now forced him to leave Trinidad’s waters to chase fish.

14:08

Music

14:31

ANDY PARK, Reporter: The small traditional fishing boats here come with unusually large and powerful outboard engines – and I’m about to find out why.

14:27

Music

14:46

Andy on boat with Marlon

MARLON SOOKOO: You have to have power like whenever if it have a pirate in the area. You have to run so you have to have a big engine on your boat to overpower the pirates.

14:52

ANDY PARK, Reporter: And how close to the Venezuelan border will we get?

15:03

MARLON SOOKOO:  This whole mainland you are seeing there, that is Venezuela land.

ANDY PARK, Reporter: That’s Venezuela?

MARLON SOOKOO:  Yeah.

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  Very close. So close you could swim.

15:06

MARLON SOOKOO:  Yeah. Where we are going to Solado, very dangerous in the night. You cannot go there in the night. No.

15:18

Music

15:25

ANDY PARK, Reporter: While fishing one night with his small crew, Marlon’s boat was attacked without warning.

15:30

MARLON SOOKOO:  The pirates come up because they seen the light in the boat. When see the light in the boat, they creep up behind the two engine. When I flashed behind I saw four guys with bulletproof vests, and that was it, they started shooting, you know duh duh duh duh.

15:37

Marlon shows gunshot scars

It pass through here and come through here.

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Marlon managed to escape with his engines and boat intact.

MARLON SOOKOO:  Because they were shooting from right here.

15:53

ANDY PARK, Reporter: So despite being shot twice in the arm by pirates you still come out here and risk your life?

16:05

MARLON SOOKOO: Yeah, because I have no other choice. If I get another job I would leave this sea work. But I don't have another choice because I have a family to see about.

16:09

View of boat from Venezuela

Music

16:19

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Even in daylight, Marlon takes no chances when a boat arrives from the Venezuelan border.

16:23

Marlon drives boat away

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Tell me what you’ve seen.

MARLON SOOKOO : Seen a boat coming from Venezuela. I don’t know if they are pirates. They are coming from Venezuela!

ANDY PARK, Reporter: So it's not safe to be here?

MARLON SOOKOO: Not safe.

16:29

Young guy on boat

GUY ON BOAT: Sometimes it’s possible it could be a mafia boat running drugs or guns, bringing guns from Venezuela. All that Venezuela, all that. Sometimes they just want to kidnap people and things. Understand? So in the case of the boat coming there we not sure what boat it is, so we can't be so close to the boat.

16:48

Marlon

MARLON SOOKOO:  Because you can't trust anyone.  You don't know what boat is what boat, so you have to come out of the area to make sure.

17:14

ANDY PARK, Reporter: You got to be careful out here.

MARLON SOOKOO: Yeah, must be careful and be watching.

17:19

ANDY PARK, Reporter: So you're pretty lucky aren't you?

MARLON SOOKOO: Lucky to be alive. If death come now it wouldn’t be a problem. We all just feel like we were going to die so it won't be a problem for me if death comes now.

17:23

Sunset

Music

17:39

Carnival  calypso competition

17:44

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Back in Port of Spain, carnival is in full swing. Tonight, it’s the calypso competition, a major pillar of Trinidad's carnival culture.

17:52

Music

18:03

St Clair walks onto stage and sings

Host:  “Show some love for Mr Garth St Clair…"

18:24

St Clair interview

GARTH ST CLAIR:  Calypso music it started off as protest music. This goes all the way back to the days of slavery, right. Where the oppressed had a chance to vent. That's what calypso is really. Calypso, our stories are told by calypso.

18:40

St Clair sings

18:53

ANDY PARK, Reporter: It’s still a simmering hotbed of political sentiment. This calypso by Garth St Clair is about Trinidad’s recent troubles.

19:01

Garth St Clair [sings]:  "The Venezuelan crisis opened plenty eyes. Some evil people chose to capitalise…"

19:10

Crowds at calypso competition

GARTH ST CLAIR:   We have a crime situation here now that's really untenable, and again, there are a number of reasons for that, too.  They started killing amongst each other.

19:19

St Clair interview

Every day somebody died. Here, there's a revenge killing here. And they keep doing it all the time.

19:27

Billboard for St Clair radio show / Radio studio

19:32

St Clair and Natasha arrive at radio station

19:45

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Garth St Clair draws on his time in prison on drug charges on his radio show with partner Natasha.

Garth St Clair: "Andy is a reporter from ABC television Australia who's here…"

19:49

Andy in radio studio with St Clair, Natasha and police officers

ANDY PARK, Reporter: With 538 murders last year alone, the rising crime rate, and solutions to it, are hot topics on air.

Garth St. Clair:  "622387 good afternoon. "

20:04

Caller: "Lots of people came from Venezuela. He said he's seen a lot of people who he knows who are in prison for serious crimes, such as murder, walking the streets and such. So, you know, we have a very serious problem.

20:22

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Why is there such a rise in crime in Trinidad? Why have there been such record numbers of murders, for example, last year?

20:39

GARTH ST CLAIR:  I knew it was going to escalate was drug related crimes. I realised in sobering up after going to prison and spending that six months, the information I got from the streets and prison was enough for me to say, "Hey, we have a problem going to escalate."

20:45

ANDY PARK, Reporter: And so do you think that with an increase in migration from Venezuela, there's been an effect on the crime rate here in Trinidad?

GARTH ST CLAIR:  It will of course, it will. It will have that. I mean, it's on record now.

21:02

NATASHA: The stigma and the stereotypes that apply to them, that all of the Venezuelan men are drug dealers, all of the Venezuelan women are prostitutes, and of course we know that's not true, but I mean that stereotype persists.

21:14

GARTH ST CLAIR:  The police, they're going to get busier, because now we will have children growing up here without education, and again, will want to find a way to settle in. The gangs we have here are to me more kindergarten than the guys from Venezuela. those gangs, those guys are brutal. They're cold blooded and there are certain marks that you will start – that they would leave. How they execute people, how they execute their rivals.

21:27

Carnival GVs

Music

22:04

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  Daily life in Trinidad and Tobago is, especially for ordinary folk in Port of Spain, marred by gang crime and violence; no one is immune.

22:22

Giant walks to gate

And when things go wrong, they call on one man – the undertaker they call Giant.

22:36

Giant dons funeral service shirt. Interview with Andy

GIANT: They know Giant delivers the dead.  Most people know Giant as 'the dead man' and even as 'undertaker'!  And they know me for that. You know, when I started didn't even want them to touch, but now I don't even care if the hand fall on me, the whole body could fall on me, I don't really care about that. 

22:46

Funeral service car

This is the pickup vehicle, this is a vehicle where you pick up on a scene, like if I have a body here now, police attend and they go down, body bag, pick up, put in this vehicle and they bring it to the funeral home, 'til the police are ready to take it to forensics or wherever.

23:09

Giant driving

"I just call it my baby. This is how we bring the bread."

23:26

Funeral service car interior

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Earlier this year, there were four homicides in just one night. Sometimes Giant has to cram two bodies in his hearse at once.

23:23

Giant driving

GIANT: For this week alone I must have done about three young fellas who hadn't even reached their 30s yet. Three to four already for the week.

23:43

Interview on street

ANDY PARK, Reporter: If murders are up in Trinidad and Tobago, last year there was over 500, second highest year on record, does that mean business is good for you?

23:54

GIANT: The way that it affects me is the murder rate going too high, and that affecting me and I as a funeral home owner telling you this.

24:06

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  Is it harder to attend to a young person that's been murdered rather than any other kind of?

24:13

GIANT:  No, it's not harder, you know, it be harder when it have multiple holes and they mash up your head and that does be hard. This warfare that's going on, it needs to stop. That is all we need to do. I could show you inside.

24:18

Giant shows Andy funeral parlour

ANDY PARK, Reporter: This is the mortuary where he repairs the bodies he collects for their funerals.

Giant:  "This is the embalming machine… This is refrigeration. Three bodies there."

24:32

Andy: "So what do you use to plug up a bullet hole in a dead body?"

24:47

Giant:  "Well you wax it."

Andy: "With what?"

Giant:  "With wax."

Andy: "Show me."

24:50

Giant shows waxing process

Giant: "This is the wax here… You take your tool and you heat it and put it on wherever the hole is. Wax it, and then you get your colour and you colour back to their colour. So you wouldn't see where it was."

Andy:  "Do you get a photo from the families so you know how to recreate a face?"

Giant: "Most of them, I know them.

24:56

Most of the deaths I deal with I know these people."

25:23

Coffins

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Giant says the guns used in the murders are coming from one place.

25:27

Giant and Andy

GIANT: Venezuela. It's the closes point to us. It's across the border it's coming from.  I'm the one picking up the pieces.

25:32

Andy at Carnival

Music

25:43

ANDY PARK, Reporter: If carnival is freedom - then Venezuelans like Maria Nuiter are joining in.

26:04

Maria and child dance in parade

Music

26:10

Maria interview

MARIA NUITER: The brotherhood between Venezuelans and Trinitarios is beautiful. All barriers break down through culture, music and dancing. It's truly been a great experience to share with them.

26:26

Carnival parade

Music

26:37

ANDY PARK, Reporter: Despite the challenges, there are some signs that Trinidad’s most recent wave of migrants are beginning to fit in.

26:46

Andrea at carnival

ANDREA:  Well this is the first time they are participating in Trinidad and Tobago carnival and to be part of this it’s just amazing. They are Venezuelans, they love their country and they're missing home but one of the things we are working on is for them to belong to the community.

26:59

Andere at carnival

ANDERE SANCHEZ: It’s tricky because you have to know English to speak to people to get a job, go to school.

27:26

ANDY PARK, Reporter: So do you feel Trinbegonian or Venezuelan?

ANDERE SANCHEZ: I would say 50/50.

ANDY PARK, Reporter:  Cinquenta cinquenta.

27:31

Music

27:39

Vox pops with women at carnival

Woman: "This is our tradition, just Trinidad spirit, Trinidad vibes, Trinidad love.

27:45

Woman 2: "I welcome anyone who is willing to experience our culture."

27:51

Andy: "So we saw one group, they were a Venezuelan group, marching for the first time this year. What do you think about that?

Woman 2: "It's a good thing.

27:55

It's awesome."

28:02

Beach shots

ANDY PARK, Reporter: For a nation shaped by many cultures, these islands have been slowly embracing the latest arrivals.

TYAJANE, Miss Caribbean: We've always had the ability

28:04

Tyajane

to be resilient. We've always had the ability to move past the struggles

28:17

Carnival shots

that we are experiencing.  Trinidad and Tobago has been increasing in crime rates, child abuse, and the list goes on, particularly with the force migrants that are here, but in the midst of all our problems, still able to celebrate.

28:22

Music

28:37

Credits [see below]

28:45

Out point after credits

29:12