The United States Coast Guard stands firm in its warning that any rafters caught at sea will be returned to their country of origin. This Tuesday repatriated 41 Cubans on board the ship Charles David Jr.. According to official data, so far this year there are already 2,472 people who saw their attempt to disembark in Florida frustrated.
The Coast Guard indicated that these returns are part of the maritime and air operations that have intensified this month to prevent the illegal landing of rafters. Last Sunday he returned to a group of 64 people in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, and Granma.
The Ministry of the Interior on the island stressed that of that group, including a minor, 11 women and 52 men, two Cubans were subjected to an investigation “for being alleged perpetrators of serious criminal acts.”
Since last October 1, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted more than 5,740 Cubans.
The exodus of migrants has been a constant in recent years. The independent medium The touch collected information on this flow from January 2021 to February 27, 2023 and made the project public the journey. The work emphasizes that in their attempt to reach the United States by sea or by land, 98 Cubans died and at least 340 are missing.
The Coast Guard indicated that these returns are part of the maritime and air operations that have intensified this month.
From the list of deceased, 60 island nationals have been identified, 28 women and 32 men. The publication highlights drowning as the main cause after the sinking of rustic boats.
In the list is Bryan Rommel Corrales Bravo, the Cuban boy who died of a heart attack in his attempt to cross the Darién Gap with his father and sister. A month earlier, on October 10, 2021, he had survived a shipwreck in which his mother, Lisandra Bravo Alarcón, died.
Alfredo Ferretis Berenguer was assassinated in Tapachula (Chiapas) in June last year. Originally from the municipality of Regla, in Havana, he had been in the region for three months and was “waiting for papers” to get his wife, his daughters, and his mother off the island, he told 14ymedio his cousin Mia.
The girl Ashley Paola Álvarez Piloto was one of the fatalities of the shipwreck Sunrise that left Jaimanitas, on November 16, 2022, bound for the United States. “The little girl was traveling with her mother, Thalía Piloto, and her sister Nashley, when the incident occurred 33 miles from the coast.”
Yosmel Barrios Bernal, well known on social networks for sharing his experiences from various Latin American countries in his transit to the US, died in April 2021 in Mexico. This 35-year-old Cuban was HIV positive and spent several days admitted to the Tapachula General Hospital due to dehydration.
The girl Ashley Paola Álvarez Piloto was one of the fatalities of the shipwreck of the ship ‘Alba’ that left Jaimanitas
In his attempt to cross the Rio Grande, last May, he drowned in Piedras Negras, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, Juan Miguel Matamoros Cagides. This young man from Pinar del Río was swept away by the current.
In April 2021, Esneiquel Galdo Arechea, 40 years old, drowned in the same circumstances. The body of this man, a native of Trinidad, in Sancti Spíritus, was found in Laredo (Texas).
Luis Miguel González Sáez and his father José Luisfrom Placetas, Villa Clara, were swept away by the current at the end of March 2022. The body of the former was found a week later, after a large police deployment and the help of other Cubans who were making a similar trip.
From October 2020 to February 2023, the United States Coast Guard has prevented more than 12,800 Cuban rafters from reaching Florida.
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