At least 5 dead and 12 missing left the shipwreck of a precarious Cuban boat that was heading to the US

At least five Cubans died and others twelve remain missing after the shipwreck of a precarious boat in the surroundings of Cayo Cruz del Padre, north of Cuba, when they were going to USAas reported this Friday by official media.

The local TV channel YumuriTV He pointed out that of the 28 people who were on board the raft, 11 were rescued alive by the Cuban coast guard service.

the body of nayelis rodriguez19 years old, was found dead, while Armando Garcia Garcia, her boyfriend, is among the missing, assured Radio Television MartíYeilanis Gómez García, the young man’s sister.

“That was the information that they gave us there, in the Santa Marta police, which is in Varadero (…) that after 72 hours the search is suspended,” he added.

The event occurred on Tuesday morning due to the strong wavesaccording to the aforementioned media and in line with the unverified information that had previously been disseminated on social networks.

The occupants of the boat then called the emergency services, which sent two patrols of the border guard troops.

The authorities reported that the rescue work continues in the area where the shipwreck occurred despite the adverse weather conditions in the area due to the arrival of a cold front.

“All those involved in the incident reside in Cárdenas and left the country illegally. on January 23 through Torrontela, a point on the Cárdenas coast, with the purpose of reaching the territory of USAexposing himself to a risky journey”, collected YumuriTV.

Hundreds of Cubans have thrown into the sea in recent days to try to reach the US fleeing misery, hunger and the repression of the dictatorship of Miguel Díaz Canel. One of the largest migratory waves in decades.

So far this month 1,200 Cubans have been deported.

At the beginning of January the US government announced a radical change of its immigration policy for Cubans, after in 2022 more than 313,000 citizens of that country to reach its southern border.

The deaths of Cubans in the Caribbean during the year 2022 were the most numerous after Haitians, with 69 deaths and disappearances recorded, according to a report from Disappeared Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The organization documented, in total, 321 deaths of migrants in the waters of the Caribbean Seathe highest number since the project began in 2014, and a drastic increase compared to the 2021 figure, when 180 deaths and disappearances were recorded.

In October 2022, eight Cubans died in an illegal exit attempt by Honda BayArtemisa, among them, a 2-year-old girl.

Political repression, but above all the severe economic crisis that the island has suffered for more than two years -with shortages and high inflation- are leading many Cubans to leave their country.

(With information from EFE)

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