Guyana Ferry Accident Death Toll Rises to 53, Captain Arrested for Drug Use

Guyana’s authorities have raised the death toll from last weekend’s ferry accident off the coast to at least 53 people.

Officials said on Tuesday that that they had revised the death toll from 41 after the MV Barima capsized at sea on Saturday night.

Seventy-six people have been reported rescued. Search crews continue looking for dozens who remain unaccounted for.

The vessel was carrying a total of 179 people when it flipped over, even though the passenger manifest only listed 133, officials have said.

Guyana’s Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill has described the accident as the country’s worst maritime disaster in decades, saying authorities are doing everything possible to locate those missing.

The government said 16 vessels have been deployed to the wreckage area, where French and local divers are leading operations.

The ferry was travelling from the capital, Georgetown, to Port Kaituma in Guyana’s inland Essequibo region when it capsized.

Authorities have pointed to the incomplete passenger list and potential drug use among crew members as factors that potentially contributed to the disaster.

Police have announced that the ferry’s captain and at least one other crew member were taken into custody after testing positive for marijuana.

“We have a zero tolerance for members of the crew drinking or smoking while at work. And for us to have positive tests from the captain, this is serious,” Edghill said.

The ferry was built in 1939, according to the shipping website VesselFinder.

Boats typically travel by sea before reaching a river to arrive at Port Kaituma, which is located in the depths of a dense rainforest.

Guyana, a small English-speaking country at the northeast corner of South America, is locked in a territorial dispute with neighbouring Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region.