GEORGETOWN, Guyana – November 1, 2026: More than 72 hours after the fatal incident first came to light, the Guyana Police Force released official preliminary details on Sunday confirming the death of 66-year-old Venezuelan national Luis Martinez, a skilled commercial diver who had been contracted to assist with marine salvage work in the country’s western Essequibo region. Contrary to initial unconfirmed reports that Martinez had been working to refloat the stranded ferry MV Barima at the time of the incident, official police statements clarify that he was deployed on a separate, unrelated salvage mission to recover a sunken or grounded vessel roughly 10 nautical miles off the shore of Anna Regina, Essequibo, on the evening of Wednesday, October 28. According to the police account, Martinez and a small team of crew members departed Georgetown’s Kingston Wharf at 5:14 p.m. that same day, traveling to the designated offshore dive site. Upon arrival, Martinez suited up and entered the water to begin his scheduled underwater operations, but after 20 minutes without resurfacing, his concerned colleagues initiated an emergency recovery, pulling him back to the surface via the safety line attached to his dive harness. Crew members found Martinez completely unresponsive, with froth emanating from his mouth, and immediately began emergency first aid efforts. The dive team transported Martinez back to the mainland, docking at the Transport and Harbours Department Wharf in the Stabroek district of Georgetown, where waiting ambulance teams rushed to provide advanced life support. Despite hours of medical intervention, an on-duty doctor officially pronounced Martinez dead at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 29. Preliminary visual examinations of Martinez’s body found no visible signs of trauma or violence on exposed skin surfaces, police confirmed. His remains have since been transferred under official escort to Memorial Gardens Funeral Home, where a mandatory post-mortem examination is scheduled to determine the exact medical cause of death. A jurisdictional tussle between government agencies has delayed the release of additional operational details: the Ministry of Public Works, which oversees Guyana’s Transport and Harbours Department, directed all media queries on the incident to the Ministry of Public Utilities, the government body with formal purview over national maritime search and rescue protocols, though a spokesperson for the latter department had not issued a public statement or shared further operational information as of Sunday afternoon.