Twenty Cuban Migrants Missing After Boat Capsizes

Photo from the Havana Malecon seawall.

HAVANA TIMES – At least 20 Cuban migrants are missing and feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Florida Wednesday amid heavy surf from Hurricane Ian. The Coast Guard says it rescued three of the asylum seekers, while four others managed to swim to shore on Florida’s Stock Island, reports Democracy Now on Thursday.

Cubans are fleeing the island by air and sea in record numbers, depending on their financial means, to escape the poverty and lack of freedoms on the island.

This tragedy comes as Cuban officials are working to restore electricity to millions of people after Hurricane Ian and a generation and distribution breakdown caused the island’s entire electrical grid to collapse.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times