Among the passengers, who were headed to Mexico, are seven minors, including two-year-old twins
14ymedio, Madrid, August 18, 2026 / At least 19 Cubans, including 7 minors, remain missing a week after setting out on a boat from Pinar del Río. The alarm was raised a few days ago by relatives of the rafters, who had had no word from them since their departure on August 11 at around two in the afternoon, and who asked for help from the authorities or from anyone who might know whether they had been assisted by the coast guard, a pleasure boat, or fishermen.
Broadcaster Mario Vallejo made an appeal on his social media, in a post to which he attached images captured by the rafters themselves aboard the vessel.
According to a report published this Monday by Martí Noticias, Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy, through the Standing Guard of the Fifth Naval Region (RN 5), headquartered in Isla Mujeres (Quintana Roo), has not yet located the vessel. “The search-and-rescue naval stations within the jurisdiction have been placed on alert by RN 5, pending further information about the case,” an official from the agency told the Cuban-American newspaper. He also stated that “the port captaincies and all search-and-rescue naval stations are aware of the vessel.”
“It was a boat that was in good shape, but an engine broke down and then they ran out of gas more than halfway through the trip because it spilled”
The agent, who did not give his name, was asked by Martí Noticias whether helicopters were being used in the search, and replied: “They have not been deployed; that is up to the naval command to decide.”
In Cancún, where the rafters are presumed to have been headed, some relatives are waiting, such as Yunaidy Martínez Ramírez, a native of Havana. “My entire family is on that boat,” she told Martí Noticias. Her husband and their three young children are among the missing. She gave that outlet some details about the crossing and expressed her fear: “It was a boat that was in good shape, but an engine broke down and then they ran out of gas more than halfway through the trip because it spilled. The boatman said they would try to sail under sail… They brought food, but after so many days I’m afraid they may have nothing left.” That communication suggests that the boat was, in fact, not a makeshift vessel, since they had radio contact.
Among the passengers are also the twins Leosdel and Leosniel, only two years old, along with their mother, Yusimy Garrobo Leiva, 35, residents of Vertientes, Camagüey.
Martínez Ramírez denounced to Martí Noticias the slowness of the Mexican authorities’ response: “The Navy always tells me the same thing: that they are searching without results. In the first few days they kept passing me from one office to another. The twins’ father and I had to go directly to the main base; if we don’t call, they tell us nothing. They have helicopters and ships to search by air and sea; they should be searching faster. I’m desperate, going out of my mind, about to go look for them myself.”
Martí Noticias recalls a similar case that occurred on August 8, when a boat that also set out from Pinar del Río bound for Cancún sank near Las Martinas after suffering a breakdown. The disaster claimed the lives of young Leodannis Sánchez, 17, and his partner Osmaikel, 19.
After a long stretch with little news of rafters, on August 13 at least a dozen Cuban migrants came ashore at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park in Key West, Florida. They were traveling in a boat they had stolen from the state-run company Marina Marlin Tarará, and are now in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Translated by GH.
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