Pirate attacks around South American and Caribbean waters are growing, and violence is increasingly used during robberies committed on vessels at anchor, a report showed on Wednesday.
The Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) nonprofit group recorded 71 incidents in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017, a 163 percent increase over 2016.
OBP said the majority of the attacks occurred in territorial waters, with around 59 percent of incidents involving robbery on yachts. Anchorages in Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Colombia and St. Lucia were the regional hot spots during 2017, it said.