Mexico City/A couple and nine other Cuban rafters arrived on the shores of Quintana Roo this month. confirmed it to 14ymedio Pedro Murillo Garay, head of the Regional Captaincy of Puerto Juárez, although he acknowledged that there are other artisanal vessels that have been abandoned “without anything being known about the people who arrived in them.”
Murillo says that the Cubans remained in the custody of the National Migration Institute (INM), which is, he recalls, “the body dependent on the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for determining the corresponding measures and carrying out the immigration procedures, and if necessary, the rafters are sent to Cuba through an assisted return.”
In November 2024, Javier Roblesa fisherman who owns a catamaran that he rents to tourists in Cancun, denounced that Isla Mujeres was becoming “a cemetery of abandoned rafts used by Cubans to reach Mexico.”
Murillo acknowledged that the problem persists. Last August, fisherman Robles says that the boat Yeilin and Yailin with the legend “Nueva Gerona” was abandoned in the Nizuc Canal, which connects the Nichupté Lagoon with the Caribbean Sea. “The boat’s fuel tanks were removed. Someone carelessly took the diesel and contaminated the area.”
The Captaincy has 28 vessels subject to a procedure for declaring abandonment. Some of them were used by Cubans
Precisely between September and October, seven abandoned boats in the Nichupté Lagoon have been removed, says Murillo. “The Captaincy has 28 vessels subject to a procedure for declaring abandonment. Some of them were used by Cubans.”
Municipal police officer Dagoberto Canul comments to 14ymedio “That with the closure of the US border under the Donald Trump Administration, the Quintana Roo route is once again registering clandestine arrivals.”
Many clandestine boats leave from the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud to Cancún, but “reports have also been obtained by the rafters themselves” of various crossings from Pinar del Río that have Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen and the Sian Ka’an reserve as their arrival point. “In Cancun they can go unnoticed because there are many who are legally working in the tourist area,” said the municipal police officer.
Meanwhile, in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, this Tuesday the body of Cuban Alside, 25, who had disappeared last Sunday after entering the sea in Playa Linda, was located in Puerto Madero, Tapachula.
The young man’s father said he was swept away by the current. In addition, he indicated that they were in the state capital for immigration procedures.
