The International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, the US professional mariners’ union, says the alleged inhumane treatment and undefined detentions of six American seamen on a salvage-relief mission in Honduras has now reached a point of critical mass and requires an immediate diplomatic remedy, which is now being formulated by State Department officials, Florida’s U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and two congressmen.
“Merchant mariners worldwide are concerned about the questionable arrests of the crew of the Tarpon Springs, Florida-based ‘Aqua Quest.’ They are essentially accused of gun-smuggling — stemming from the captain’s voluntary disclosure to Honduran officials that there were five guns aboard his ship used for protection in the event of piracy attacks and confrontations with drug traffickers,” explains MM&P’s chief-of-staff, Captain Klaus Luhta.
“Of more-immediate concern are alarming reports that the men are fed a few spoons of rice and beans per day; detained in fecal-infested, unsanitary conditions; relentlessly attacked by potentially disease-transmitting mosquitoes; and live in constant fear of other inmates and their captors,” stresses Luhta, a deep-ocean ship master, American delegate to the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization and attorney specializing in seamen’s rights, criminalization of mariners cases and regulatory and legislative affairs.
In early May, the men set-sail from Florida on a mission to help the impoverished town of Ahuas clear cedar and mahogany logs blocking the Patuca River. On May 5, the captain and crew were arrested at the port of Puerto Lempira on Honduras’ Mosquito Coast.
Police swarmed the vessel. They confiscated two pistols, two shotguns and a semi-automatic rifle, according to court records. The men have been jailed for nearly seven weeks.
On Friday, in Washington, U.S. State Department officials met with Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández to discuss the Aqua Quest case.
Congressmen representing some of the captive constituents from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have written to Honduran officials seeking a full and impartial investigation.
In published news reports, Aqua Quest Captain Robert Mayne, said: “There is continuous prisoner violence and guards firing shots on a daily basis.”
The Patuca River is Honduras’ main waterway leading from the Miskito Rain Forest to the Caribbean Sea.