(EFE).- The authorities of the Florida Keys recovered three other lifeless bodies that are believed to belong to victims of the shipwreck of a boat in which some 27 Cubans tried to reach this area of the state of Florida in the middle of the swell caused by Hurricane Ian last week.
This weekend the bodies of three women were found, who were in the mangroves near a naval air station in Key West, one of the Florida keys closest to Cuba.
In the same area, known as Boca Chica, the bodies of a man and a woman believed to also be part of the group whose boat capsized on Sept. 28 were discovered earlier, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
Nine people survived the shipwreck and are in the custody of the authorities.
Nine people survived the shipwreck and are in the custody of the authorities.
When last Friday the United States Coast Guard confirmed the discovery of the lifeless body of a man in the mangrove swamp, 17 rafters were still missing from the shipwreck, according to a statement from that institution.
“We can only pray that our crews find the others so that their families and loved ones can rest,” Capt. Robert Kinsey said at the time.
With the discovery of these latest bodies, there would be thirteen who are still missing.
The shipwreck occurred near Stock Island, neighboring Key West, the day Hurricane Ian, after hitting western Cuba, began its approach to the southwestern coast of Florida, where it made landfall with winds of 240 kilometers per hour. Four rafters managed to get there by swimming, three were rescued and 20 were wanted, of which seven have already appeared.
One of the Cubans rescued on Wednesday told the local television channel WPLG that they left the island last Friday and had been at sea for five days when the shipwreck occurred. He assured that they remained “two days and two nights near the coast of Cuba and they did not rescue us.”
The man accepted the risk of crossing with a rustic boat, but clarified that “freedom is worth more than the danger that we run”
The man accepted the risk of crossing with a rustic boat, but clarified that “freedom is worth more than the danger that we run.”
This Friday, the US Coast Guard indicated that the port authority of Key West opened the ports and after the first evaluations it was found that the passage of “Ian blew up the main buoys of the navigation channel more than 100 yards from the station” .
US authorities have intercepted 6,182 rafts since October 1, 2021, the highest number in the last six years when 5,396 Cuban migrants were detained by the Coast Guard in 2016, and even exceeds the total number of people rescued in the following five years. .
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