Pirates Prey on Salvador Fishermen

Fishermen had complained for a year about the pirates who crept onto their boats at night and stole shrimp at gunpoint. Police opened an investigation and had a list of suspects, but not enough proof to make arrests.

Then Israel Job Pineda made a fatal mistake. When ski-masked men brandishing pistols boarded the Santa Julia last month, he exclaimed, “Oh, it’s you.”

A pirate shot him to death and critically wounded another man who also recognized an intruder.

Pineda’s death provoked a public outcry that turned the pirates into El Salvador’s top law enforcement priority.

Twelve days after the killing, hundreds of police officers converged on the fishing village of La Herradura, 27 miles southeast of the capital, to arrest the nine fishermen and merchants whom witnesses had linked to the attack.

Two Salvadoran navy speedboats were dispatched to arrest fishermen aboard their boats. In all, eight people were taken into custody, but the man suspected of killing Pineda escaped.

But law enforcement officials do not expect the arrests to make a dent in the problem. Piracy remains a serious threat to an industry that provides 54,000 jobs and $65 million a year in foreign exchange, shrimp being El Salvador’s third-largest export after coffee and sugar.

The piracy problem plagues most of Central America. Small, poor nations do not have the resources to protect their coasts, and they are no match for drug traffickers, environmental abusers or modern-day pirates. Pirates prey mainly on shrimp boats, which are often at sea a week or more.

“There were 14 robberies last year,” said Mauricio Aviles, the manager of the Salvadoran Fishing and Aquaculture Chamber, an industry association. “The navy cannot make arrests unless they catch thieves red-handed. The police are supposed to enforce the law, but at sea, there are no police.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Ciro Barrera confirmed that the police have no boats.

“We cannot patrol the ocean because we do not have the equipment,” he said. “We were able to make these arrests only because the navy provided the boats.”

When the Santa Julia was attacked Jan. 16, no government boats or helicopters were available.

Fishing boats brought the critically wounded fisherman to shore six hours after he was shot. The man--a key witness who could identify the pirates--is now in a coma.

Prosecutor Mario Machado said he worries what will happen to the rest of his case because witnesses are being intimidated by suspects’ relatives. One witness has already disappeared, and two others have received death threats, he said.

Those witnesses have been relocated with funds provided by the owner of the Santa Julia, wealthy businessman Archie Baldocchi.

“I have no budget to protect witnesses,” Machado said.

And the piracy problem is getting worse, Aviles said. “Before, the robbers just took merchandise,” he said. “But now, people are dying.”

Machado said he wishes he could be more aggressive against pirates. But he noted that he is one of only four prosecutors in La Libertad, a violent, oceanside province that had more than 200 murders last year. “I am duty-bound to go after the murderers first,” he said.

The chamber rejected that argument in an advertisement that began: “How many more Salvadoran homes must grieve in order to combat marine piracy?”

Neighboring Nicaragua created a Fishing Defense Plan in May 1996 after pirates attacked 23 fishing boats in its coastal waters.

“At the time, it was a serious problem,” Nicaraguan police spokesman Anibal Calero said. “Fishing companies were losing thousands of dollars.”

To combat the problem, police enacted strict controls at ports, recording departures and arrivals of boats. Fishing boats, the navy and police set up an efficient communications system enabling fishing boats to call for help during an attack. The chances that boats in trouble could get help increased considerably after the navy launched three new Israeli-made speedboats in April 1996.

“The problem persists, but we have had some success,” Calero said. “The rings have been broken up.”

In contrast, Salvadoran law enforcement officials admit that they still have a lot of work ahead of them. Another investigation is underway, and arrests are expected this month, one official said.

Machado is investigating the processing plants that buy the stolen shrimp. Those cases are harder to prove, as he learned in the Santa Julia case, but he said he believes that they are the best way that the courts can stop piracy.

“If no one would buy the stolen merchandise,” he reasoned, “there would be no point in piracy.”