As dangerous as the land route to the US southern border is, involving a climb up through the jungle of Panama’s Darien Gap into cartel-infested Mexico, the seaborne route through the Caribbean to the Florida coast may be even more so.
An example is the still unknow fate of 32 Cuban migrants who set out for Florida on January 3, 2023. The group, which included an eight-year-old girl, left from Playa Larga, Cuba, on a homemade raft, measuring 30 feet from bow to stern, with a sail and eight oars. In addition to the child, the boat’s passengers included Yoel Romero, a 43-year-old bricklayer and father of three, Jonathan Jesus Alvarez, a 30-year-old truck driver, also with three children, and Dariel Alejandro Chacon, a 27-year-old maintenance worker. They were never seen again, and the only evidence of their fate was the discovery of two backpacks on the Florida coast
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news service recently spoke to 21 relatives of the migrants. Alvarez’s mother, Osmara Garcia, told reporters, “Nobody has given us an answer” as to the fate of the migrants. Romero’s mother, Amparo Riviera, said, “We need to know whatever the answer is…because the uncertainty is unbearable.”
The incident was not unique. Since 2020, at least 368 Cubans have either been found dead or declared missing in the Caribbean. In addition, at least 1,100 migrants from Central and South America have also disappeared at sea.
The rumors spreading throughout the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere that the United States was open to any and all illegal migrants has taken their toll. It must stop.
For more, see Breitbart News.