Mexico News Daily, November 13, 2019

Pirates attacked and robbed an Italian ship in the Gulf of Mexico in the early morning hours on Tuesday.

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Italian sailors were injured during the attack, the Efe news agency reported.

The vessel Remas, which was carrying a crew of 35, was boarded by eight people traveling on two small boats.

The 75-meter ship provides services to oil drilling platforms in the region and belongs to the Italian company Micoperi.

The pirates robbed everything they could during the attack, shooting one crew member in the leg and striking another on the head with a blunt object, but none of the injuries was reported as serious.

The two were taken to hospital after the boat was escorted by the Italian navy to Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.

Piracy has increased off the coasts of Campeche, Tabasco and Yucatán in recent years. There have been around 100 cases since 2017.

Armed thieves board vessels and drilling platforms late at night and move quickly to take anything they find of value.

In January 2019, pirates armed with machetes and shotguns attacked two boats off the coast of Yucatán. After tying up the crew, they took the boats’ motors, GPS devices, loads of fish and other goods.

The boats remained adrift for several hours before they were discovered by another boat that towed them to port.

In November 2018, four masked men attacked a fishing boat in the same area, taking with them the boat’s motor, GPS, 120 kilograms of octopus and the crew members’ cell phones.

Due to the high levels of insecurity in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen in Yucatán earlier this year called for authorities to reinforce surveillance efforts on the water.

The Yucatán Secretary of Public Security affirmed that it has launched operations to arrest pirates.