14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2023 — Almost a month after the shipwreck, around Cayo Cruz del Padre, in the province of Matanzas, three unidentified bodies remain in the Legal Medicine facilities. This was reported on her Facebook account by Yaylin Mesa Vázquez, one of the survivors of the incident that occurred on January 23, who was summoned because “the found body of a woman appeared” to be that of her sister Yamily Triana Vázquez.
Mesa wrote last Tuesday on her social networks that she was able to “confirm” that among the clothes they showed her “are my sister’s belongings.” The young woman said that the garments were found “near a floating corpse,” something that “nobody can explain, but that’s how it was.”
The 27-year-old survivor specified that “it may be a coincidence that the found remains could be her [Yamily], but it is not yet fully confirmed.” She explained that this must require a process to “be certain” that she is her blood relative. “They have to compare everything and then it will be known if she is my sister or not.”
Yaylin has doubts that “the bones found floating in the water” are those of her sister.
“They have to compare everything and then it will be known if it is my sister or not”
Yaylin Mesa spent about 24 hours adrift until a fishing boat carrying foreign tourists rescued her, dehydrated and with sun-burned skin. Her sister, who as of now is still missing, left behind an 11-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. The family, 14ymedio learned, has been the victim of the siege and repression following the demonstrations on July 11, 2021. Yarelys, another of the sisters of the survivor, was arrested by Black Berets for participating in the protests and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The figure released by the official media was 28 shipwrecked, fewer than the 31 initially claimed by the relatives of the victims who were on the boat on January 23. According to the Cuban authorities, 11 people survived and 12 are missing.
Mesa stressed: “So far, to clarify all doubts, there are 11 survivors, 8 bodies already fully identified” and another 9 are missing.
On the last day of January, the bodies of young people Nayelis Rodríguez, 19, Kevin Medina, Tito González and Yoan Karel Almaguer Tamayo were identified on social networks by their relatives.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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