You know, I became a sailor to see the world.  Well, that and because I had nothing else to do with my life and nobody in the continental United States would give me a job.  Although we don’t get to spend as much time in port as I had hoped when I first made the decision to go to sea, I have greatly enjoyed the world travel.

I mention that because I want you to know that not only do I enjoy seeing new places, I love, absolutely love, meeting new people.  And although 99% of the people I meet are wonderful, everywhere you go there are bad people.  I mean, not at Disney World, but everywhere else¸ even in America.  I don’t want anybody to think I am talking bad about places, such as beautiful Argentina, when I mention one of the countries I have visited in conjunction with some sort of corruption.  It is not the average Joes that are fleecing us, it is the small group of officials that we have to deal with.

Having said all that, and I truly mean it when I say how much I love all the foreign places I have visited and friends I have made (even though there is no place like America) when I tell you that we deal with corrupt goons looking for bribes, I am not lying.  That is how it is.  Sorry if some people don’t like it.

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Blog music is obviously “I Shot the Sherriff.”  You can choose between Clapton or Marley.  Can’t go wrong either way.

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Because of the experience I have had with these people all around the world, I truly believed that we were going to be hassled until a bribe was given and then it would all go away.  Well, I felt that way up until they issued warrants for our arrest and wanted to take us away in handcuffs, but that comes later in the story.

There we are being held in the ship’s office while all of these officials are on the ship when finally a possible reason for all of this nonsense became clear.  I heard the following with my own ears.  It happened two feet from me.  Our Captain, who is not one to put up with a lot of nonsense, demanded to know what was going on and why were being subjected to these searches, which already in the first few hours had exceeded what was normal and customary.  A man from one of the many agencies introduced himself as being from INTERPOL and said that there had been a tip of drugs being smuggled in cargo that had been loaded in Colombian ports.  We had just loaded some cargo in Colombia.

Next, the Captain asked if the tip was about all ships coming from Colombia or just our ship.  The supposed INTERPOL agent said the tip was just about our ship.  I say supposed because the fine folks at gCaptain contacted INTERPOL and they claim to not even have the authority to board ships.  Check out the following link for a good story about our time in Venezuela.  In fact, you should read gCaptain for all matters maritime!!!

http://gcaptain.com/ocean-atlas-released-venezuela/

These days I believe it was not INTERPOL, but Venezuelan government types impersonating INTERPOL agents to get on our ship and cause trouble.  Back then I was like, “INTERPOL!!!  Are you bad word kidding me?  This is more serious than that time my buddies and I had a run-in with the New Orleans cops at the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert!!!”  If INTERPOL showed up at your house and said they had a tip there were drugs in your attic, trust me when I tell you that you would trip out a little bit, even if you didn’t think there were drugs in your attic.

We didn’t think there were drugs in our cargo, but who the heck knows?  Does a mailman know everything that is in his truck?  How many FedEx guys have delivered parcels of weed and had no idea what was in the package?  My job is to the steer the ship, not to know what is in the crates and containers.

That started an entirely new line of speculation.  What is my culpability here?  If they discovered a container full of cocaine am I going to jail?  That hardly seems fair to have to participate in the risk without participating in any of the reward.  If I might have to rot in a Venezuelan jail for drugs I didn’t know I was transporting, then I should get thrown a little cash if those drugs I didn’t know we had get to their destination.  But that is not how it works.  At least no mysterious bundles of cash have ever shown up at my door.

We didn’t know who was in charge of all these investigations because as I have stated there were so many different agencies on the ship.  I don’t even think they knew who was in charge because often they were more confused than we were.  Those first few hours many of the national guardsmen and DEA types seemed more interested in having their picture taken on an American ship than anything else.

When the doggies sniffed out the guns nobody gave it a second thought.  Our ship sometimes travels through the Gulf of Aden and other high piracy areas.  Because we have no desire to be held hostage for years in lawless Somalia…..

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This is real and this happening now!!!  Research the story of the M/V Iceberg 1 if you don’t believe me.  Spread the word that mariners have been held for years.  Some have been executed.  The world doesn’t know and doesn’t seem to care.  Sailors are people too.  Thanks for caring.

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Anyway, because we don’t want to get attacked by pirates we hire guards who use guns to keep us safe.  We are merchant marines, not marines.  We don’t have our own guns.  What we do is lock up the guns and ammo that belong to the guards.  When they come on board they break them out.  We don’t have access to them.

Knowing all this is why I wasn’t concerned when the guns were found.  We weren’t hiding them and had a legitimate reason for possessing them.  I am not going to specify what we carry (don’t want to tip off the pirates!!) but it wasn’t enough to invade Venezuela.  I don’t see why these guys were so worried.

Ok, Ok….I will concede that a team comprised of Private Benjamin (I love Goldie Hawn!), Beatle Bailey and the group of guys from the movie Stripes could probably take out Venezuela.  Still, they all had military training.  I work on a cargo ship.  Surely it is just a matter of getting some paperwork taken care of and it will all go away.

Nothing went away.  They ordered that all the cargo be taken off the ship.  They confiscated all the weapons and I was personally questioned by several different officials about their purpose.  Then they started telling me how serious it is to be involved in arms trafficking.

I would guess it is.

At this point things were definitely starting to feel anything but normal.  Our home had been searched multiple times.  Our defensive weapons had been confiscated.  All of the cargo was going to be off loaded the next day.  We were no longer allowed to leave the ship.

I wasn’t worried, but I wasn’t happy either.

Next up, “I don’t mind being held hostage but you better let me out on the town for a steak!”

The elections in Venezuela are today.  I don’t know about you but I am a lot more interested than I used to be.

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Thanks for reading these blogs.  They have been read in more than fifteen countries which amazes me.  For those of you reading in Venezuela, please know that I really like 90% of the people I met there.  The numbers of people that have at least viewed my blog has, to be honest, tickled me a little bit.

If you like it, please take a second and click the like button on the bottom.  There are also links to share it if you think your friends may like to read it.  If you don’t like it, that’s cool, but if you do please click the button.  It is not for my ego, which couldn’t get any bigger than it already is anyway.  It is so that websites will promote my blog.  Thanks.

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Have a wonderful Sunday.  You should call somebody you haven’t talked to in a long time and tell them you love them.  Little things like that make the world a better place.

Russell Yale