The United States Coast Guard recovered the remains of former Angolan combatant Alberto Rosell Ojeda, who drowned trying to reach the United States. The journalist Wilfredo Cancio confirmed on their social networks that this rafter “was part of a group of 20 that set sail early last Saturday for Florida.”
Rosell, detailed the communicator, “until the moment of his departure he worked as a grocer in the Cimex chain of stores.” Last Sunday the Coast Guard reported about the search for a Cuban rafter who “was last seen in the water, near Fort Zachary Taylor,” south of Key West.
This Tuesday the officials confirmed that the body of Rosell was rescued. Lieutenant Elizabeth Tatum, who coordinated the search mission, sent her condolences to the ex-combatant’s family in Angola. While it was revealed to Cancio that the body was “dismembered”.
Rosell’s boat capsized near Zachary Taylor. The rafters jumped into the sea, where they remained for nearly ten hours. They were aided by Argentines Guillermo Triguero and Alejandro Zecchin, who on Sunday were making a recreational trip from the Gulf of Mexico to the Bahamas aboard the Island Gird, published the portal TN.
“We heard some screams. We began to search the area and we got eight Cubans on board. They were adrift,” Triguero told the Argentine media that they could not find the other 12 rafters. “They jumped into the sea and had the idea of swimming to their destination, but the current carried them out to sea.”
The eight Cubans were handed over to the US Coast Guard. Wilfredo Cancio said that 10 of the rafters “managed to swim and reach the shores of Key West,” one more was rescued by Coast Guard agents and “taken to a nearby hospital to receive emergency medical care.”
This Wednesday, 15 Cuban rafters were taken into custody. According to officer Walter Slosarthe migrants “made landfall on Marquesas Keys, 20 miles west of Key West,” where they remained stranded until they were rescued.
The data offered by the US Coast Guard indicates that since October 1, 2021, the crews have intercepted 2,464 Cubans. This Tuesday the Coast Guard repatriated 36 Cubans aboard the ship Isaac May.
“These men, women and children are at great risk trying to navigate unpredictable seas in crude, unsafe and overloaded vessels,” he reiterated. through a statement Lieutenant Paul Benyovszky.
Figures from the Customs and Border Protection Office show that 234,088 irregular migrants were detained on the southern border of the United States in April, 5.4% more than in the previous month. Of these, 35,049 are Cuban, which represents a record number.
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