They left Cuba for the U.S. in November. No one has seen them since.
A group of up to 17 people left northwestern Cuba on Nov. 9 and have not been seen or heard from again, according to several people with knowledge of the incident.
The situation highlights the risks Cubans are still willing to take to cross the Florida Straits in mostly unseaworthy craft to escape the Castro regime. This is despite U.S. policy changing three years ago and no longer affording Cubans who make landfall in the States refuge status.
“I understand their plight. But, I also want to send the message that you are risking your life, risking getting knocked off the boat and eaten by sharks,” said Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the pro-democracy group, Democracy Movement or Movimiento Democracia. “You also risk getting picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, who will take you back, where you will start from zero walking around with the stigma you tried to leave.”
Repeal of ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ Cuban policy
In January 2017, the Obama administration, in one of its last foreign policy decisions, repealed the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy that allowed anyone from Cuba who made it to U.S. soil to stay and apply for permanent residency after a year. Those caught at sea were returned to Cuba. Now, whether stopped on land or sea, Cubans who enter the U.S. without a visa are sent back.
“But, people keep doing it because the conditions are dire with the repression and the economy,” Sanchez said.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Tuesday that it searched for the group starting Nov. 10 before calling off the search eight days later.
“With overdue cases, we keep the search going until we exhaust all of our available information,” said Petty Officer Jose Hernandez, a spokesman for the service.
The search included boats, two airplanes and a helicopter, he said.
Came from Cárdenas, Cuba
The Coast Guard did not know the number of people on the boat, but friends and family provided the Miami Herald with a list of 17 names of young men they say embarked on the dangerous journey. They are all from the same neighborhood in Cárdenas.
A neighbor of a father of one of the young men told the Herald the tight-knit community is concerned over the uncertainty of the travelers’ fate.
Some say they are in the Bahamas, while others say they are in Guantanamo Bay or are in hiding, concerned about the repercussions they face for leaving the communist island nation.
“All the families are devastated,” said the neighbor, Joseline. The Herald is using only her first name. “They don’t eat. They don’t sleep. Everyone tells them something different every day, and they attach to anything because it gives them a piece of hope.”
Joseline said there is no news about the men in Cuba, either from the media or the government on the island.
One of the men’s fathers sent the Herald a photo of the boat on which they left Cuba. While the fishing boat with a cabin appears to be more seaworthy than many of the makeshift vessels used by migrants to cross the often treacherous Florida Straits, it also looks too small to safely ferry 17 adults.
And the group embarked on their trek as Hurricane Eta reformed into a Category 1 storm as it swirled off Florida’s southwestern coast. Cuba was under a tropical storm watch as the men prepared to leave. Friends say they knew the risks but were determined to leave.
“However, it’s been too long, and no one has heard anything,” said Rene Reyes, an American who recently returned from Cárdenas, where he was helping a friend open a restaurant.
Despite the staggering odds against the men’s survival, family and friends are holding out hope they will turn up safely somewhere, perhaps in the Bahamas or Dominican Republic. And they yearn for closure, even if the journey proved fatal.
“If they died, at least tell them they died so they can give them a funeral,” Joseline said.
The names of the men provided to the Herald are: Pedro Francisco Alonso Napoles, Erisdiel Cristobal Martinez Mederos, Juan Alfredo Yaylor Delgado, Lazaro Yasel Pedroso Carmona, Randy Capote Dominguez, Luis Reinaldo Gonzalez Rodriguez, Cesar Montalvo, Jordi Escul Fleita, Ubandy Martel Nodarse, Elier Martinez Fernandez, Eduardo Martinez Fernandez, Abraham Martinez Torres, Jhonni Mirabel Terra, Jorge Luis Hernandez Galloso, Yadiel Tailor, Lazaro Raul Mirabel Leon and a man named Jorge, with no last name provided.
