Azores Situation Report Wednesday 30th August 2023
Navy assists drifting fishing vessel
The Navy coordinated, on Monday, the monitoring of a fishing vessel that was adrift about 200 meters from the coast of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, in the Azores.
According to the Navy, the local fishing vessel Maria Esperança, with three elements on board, lost “the propulsion capacity to return to land, drifting about 200 meters from the coast, near Ponta Delgada” .
The vessel was supported by the speedboat of the Instituto de Socorros a Náufragos N. Sra. Boa Viagem and the speedboat of the Maritime Police Roaz, having docked in the port of Ponta Delgada at 17:08 local time.
Man arrested for the crime of homicide in São Miguel
The Judiciary Police, through the Department of Criminal Investigation of the Azores, arrested a man, for strong indications of the commission of the crime of homicide, in the attempted form, which occurred in the city of Ribeira Grande, last Wednesday, the 23rd of August.
According to a statement from the Judiciary Police, the crime was committed as part of a discussion, “motivated by the dissemination, through social networks, of defamatory images, published by the victim and aimed at the aggressor”.
In the course of the altercation, the “victim was attacked, using a cutting-piercing instrument, in various regions of the torso”.
Considering the location of the body, the multiple wounds produced endangered the life of the 40-year-old victim.
The detainee, aged 30, was presented to the competent judicial authorities, having been applied, among others, the coercive measures prohibiting him from approaching the victim and from periodic presentations, to the criminal police body of the area of residence.
Three seriously injured in stage fall at Whaling Week
Three people were seriously injured, on Sunday night, due to the fall of the roof of the main stage of the Whaling Week, the biggest celebrations in the municipality of Lajes do Pico, in the Azores, revealed a source from Civil Protection.
According to the communication office of the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Azores, the three injured were initially transported by ambulance to the Health Centre of Lajes do Pico and later sent to Hospital da Horta, on the neighbouring island of Faial.
According to witnesses at the site, the structure collapsed due to the strong wind that was felt on Sunday, the last day of the festivities, in honour of Senhora de Lourdes, patroness of whalers.
The witnesses added that the tragedy was only not greater because the accident occurred minutes before about half a hundred musicians from the Wind Orchestra of the Municipality of Lajes, who were going to perform together with Mimo’s Dixie Band, took to the stage.
Roberto Silva, former mayor of Lajes do Pico and father of a young man who was preparing to perform in the municipal orchestra, blames the executive for “ignoring” the warnings about the location of the main stage of the parties, which he considers having been too exposed to prevailing winds.
“The successive warnings, already in 2022, that the new location of the main stage of the Whaling Week was at serious risk of collapse, due to exposure to the winds, were completely ignored and neglected”, lamented the former socialist mayor, recalling that, in the last year, “the stage was dragged by the wind, endangering the lives of the people who performed and the hundreds of spectators who watched”.
The Lusa agency sought to obtain information from the municipality, but no member of the municipal executive, chaired by the socialist Ana Brum, was available to speak to journalists.
Originating in the 19th century, the feast in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes begins on the last Sunday in August and lasts for a week, including, in addition to religious ceremonies, various cultural activities linked to the ancient activity of whaling.