Five deceased – one man, three women and one minor – is the balance of the sinking of a boat with Cuban migrants north of Bahía Honda, in the province of Artemisa. The boat sank this Friday “when it collided with a surface unit of Border Troops during its identification,” according to a note from the Ministry of the Interior.
According to the Government, 23 people were rescued by other units that joined the search and rescue.
The official note accuses the United States of encouraging illegal departures and points to the economic embargo as one of its “main incentives.”
“The US government does not contribute to guaranteeing safe, orderly and regular emigration, while trying to create situations of social destabilization,” states the text read on the television news.
The Cuban authorities are investigating “this painful fact” that “occurs as a consequence of the hostile and cruel policy of the US Government against Cuba,” adds the brief note.
The spread of the news has already begun to stir up a stir on social networks where many have remembered the tugboat ‘March 13’
The spread of the news has already begun to raise a stir on social networks where many have remembered the tugboat March 13, a small boat whose sinking in July 1994 killed 41 Cubans trying to leave Cuba. The testimony of the survivors confirmed the responsibility of the official party in the attack and the launching of water jets against the ship.
The US Coast Guard has intercepted 6,182 Cubans trying to reach the country by sea this year, seven times more than the 838 detained in 2021. So far this month, 921 rafters have been intercepted from the island.
Last Thursday, the head of the Border Patrol of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, who has registered the arrival of several of these rafters, reported the disembarkation of 24 people, four of them children, in Marathon, in a boat to which they named him The cream. After receiving medical attention they were taken into custody.
A day earlier, Slosar confirmed the arrival of 80 rafters who arrived in Florida through the Marquesas Keys. Among them was Loisel De León Morales, a young man who recorded his journey along with 21 other friends. After surrendering, they were released and reunited with relatives waiting to find out their future.
Cubans who touch US soil have a better chance of receiving asylum, while rafters intercepted in international waters must prove that they are victims of harassment by the regime, otherwise they are returned to the island.
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