For most of today, divers from the Belize National Coast Guard were in the waters around the Port of Belize Facility in Port Loyola, Belize City. They were looking for elderly seaman Leobihildo (Leo-bildo) Varela who went overboard last night. He's the owner of the Varela Tug Boat which transports merchandise and supplies from Belize City to San Pedro Town. Last night he was on his way to the Port of Belize, but he went overboard during a thunderstorm.
All accounts to us are that he and his crew were pulling his barge, "San Vicente" into the waters near port of Belize last night. The crew was caught in a squall which dumped heavy rains and strong winds on them suddenly. It pushed them off-course from the usual barge docking area, and sent them in the direction of the bridge of the Port's pier, where they certainly would have crashed. The crew opted to try to release the barge before they were tipped over, but the tugboat and the barge collided with Varela on deck. That sent him overboard, and it is believed that he may have been injured. Since then, he's not resurfaced, and everyone involved is fearing the worst.
The CEO of the Port of Belize, Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, spoke with 7News about the incident this afternoon, and here's what he had to say:
Arturo "Tux" Vasquez - CEO/Receiver, Port of Belize
"We got a call from our security people between 9:30 and 10:00, that we had an incident where a barge had run into the pier. Obviously we had a similar incident a few months ago and I was very much concerned. So, I came very quickly and what I saw was a barge was lodged against the pier. There was no tug boat insight at the time but my security had told me that the tug was already by the marina. The security told me as well that somebody may had fallen up overboard. so, there are two concerns we have here, obviously the concern for the safety of life and also my concern at the time also was possibly damages to the pier, that could be significant for us, not only in cost the whole inconvenience of importation and we wouldn't want to be going through that again. By that time the police were here. A few minutes after a lot of police and then the BERT ambulance showed up. I've heard interviews that the police were having with the captain and he was saying to them that as they were coming in there's a squall that came around between 9:30/10:00 and I know, I was on the pier and the sea was extremely rough. The barge was heading towards the pier and he was trying to stop that. So he was trying to pull the vessel back which was not possible and he claimed that it was so rough that it was about to tilt - the tug that they were in and the best thing he could have done was to release the barge which he did but after releasing it apparently he tried to still kind of bumped it away from the pier. There was a collision between the barge and the tug and that's when the other crew members told the police that he saw when Mr. Varela went overboard. One of the crew members were saying that he was probably hit. During the collision I understand that... I saw him making gestures to the police which was suggest to me that he was hit against the tug. So he may have been injured before and falling into the water. I don't know and I really don't want to speculate on that."
Leobihildo Varela is a resident of San Pedro Town. Late word to 7News is that the Coast Guard has suspended the search for the day, and they resume tomorrow.
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