The scene this weekend at Cayo Caracoles, in Lajas, Puerto Rico was one of over 400 boats in the middle of a “sea of people” without a mask and in total agglomeration – including a mother who was in the water and under the hot sun with a newborn – which led to an eviction in the area by inspectors from the Office of Investigations of the Department of Health and the Body of Natural Resources Watchers.
This was confirmed to the press by Jesús Hernández, director of the Health Investigations Office, stating that the images published on social media networks this weekend are real and agree with what his team testified this afternoon since they began evicting hordes of people, crowding in and out of boats in the waters of Cabo Rojo and Lajas.
Contrary to expressions made by officers of the Puerto Rico Police, Health and Natural Resources personnel, what they found in the Cayo Caracoles area was a huge disorder.
“The reality is that the police came after we evicted Caracoles. When the FURA (United Rapid Action Forces) helicopter arrived, it found everything in control and correctly, but we had already intervened, ”said Hernández.
Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Rivera Miranda, assured the press that contrary to the images that transpired on social networks – where people were crowded together and without masks – the police personnel found everything in “complete order” during a patrol carried out on Saturday , in Lajas. The officer even doubted that the images correspond to this easter weekend.
Hernández, however, testifies that the situation on Saturday occurred and was repeated on Easter Day.
“What they saw on social media is correct. We have everything documented with photographs … what happened in Cayo Caracoles was a situation that has bothered the entire group of residents of the area, ”he said.
He said that Sunday’s operation, in which the Commissioner of the Police Corps, Haydelin Ronda, participated, began at 1:30 in the afternoon in Combate (Cabo Rojo) and continued through the coastal area until reaching Lajas. There they found boats “attached to each other in violation of the executive order that they must be 10 feet apart.”
“Also, everyone was without a mask. There was a sea of people … even, I’ll tell you more, we intervened with a mother who had a newborn under water and the hot sun. She had to be removed from the area and taken to a safe dock for the police to continue with the intervention. The mother would ask: ‘What wrong did I do?’ ”Hernández said.
He explained that the action of the authorities was to evacuate the key and orient the citizens. “” It was something similar to what we did some time ago in La Perla (Old San Juan) or what we have done in La Placita (Santurce) when we had to get people out … the only thing that here people moved for other adjacent keys and we had to follow them from one key to another to reach an order, “he said.
She stated that no fines were issued because the approach was to remove the nearly 400 boats that were in the area and “break the crowding of people.” “There were between 500 to a thousand people,” she assured, indicating that the citizens were “cooperative.”
According to Hernández, between Saturday and Easter Sunday, the Health team made more than 30 interventions, including that of Cayo Caracoles and others in hammocks.
“We also had a boat operator in La Parguera who was given the directive to close because he was not keeping physical distance in the boat and had more than 50% occupancy allowed,” he added.
Meanwhile, Hernández recalled that last week the person identified as the organizer of a massive car activity in the parking lot of the Montehiedra shopping center (in events that occurred on January 16) pleaded guilty in the Bayamón court for having violated the order executive that prohibits crowds as a preventive measure against COVID-19.
“In addition, 4 other people pleaded guilty to having violated the curfew,” he said without giving details of their names.
