The incident occurred Friday night in Jamaican waters, the admiral said.

“Excessive force” was used against the fishermen and the Foreign Ministry should file “the highest level protest” with the Jamaican government, Rodriguez told Tegucigalpa’s HRN radio station.

“A Honduran-flagged fishing boat was attacked by coast guardsmen from Jamaica because they were fishing illegally in Jamaica’s waters,” the admiral said.

The incident happened “in a very remote place, in the north, about 350 nautical miles from the coast of Honduras, where our fishermen don’t usually fish,” Rodriguez said.

The Honduran vessel “was hailed by radio, ignored the call from the coast guard and fled,” prompting the Jamaican patrol boat to “fire on the fishing boat,” the admiral said.

“We consider it an excessive use of force if the crime was illegal fishing,” Rodriguez said, adding that officials were trying to determine whether the boat was involved in other criminal activities, such as drug or arms trafficking.

The fishing boat is sailing for Puerto Lempira, a port in Gracias a Dios province, with the body of the dead captain and the two wounded fishermen aboard, the navy chief said…continue article from Latin American Herald Tribune here.