
14ymedio, Havana, 24 January 2025 — A Cuban woman, Domínguez-Nieves, pled guilty to the crime of “conspiring to smuggle immigrants” to the United States. The woman, living in Sebring, Florida, will be sentenced in the federal court of Miami on April 11, where she could receive five years to life in a federal prison, according to the WPLG Local 10 station.
Domínguez-Nieves, 26, was arrested in 2024 and accused of causing the death in 2022 of at least 16 rafters; four bodies were recovered on the high seas. There were 10 charges against her related to illegal immigration, detailed by the Key West Coast Guard, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Monroe County Medical Office of the Coroner and the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.
The US authorities specified that Domínguez-Nieves charged the families of the victims 11,500 dollars and promised to bring them from Cuba to the United States. According to the investigations, the accused sent the money to an unidentified accomplice in Havana, who was in charge of organizing the trip.
US authorities specified that Domínguez-Nieves charged the families of the victims 11,500 dollars and promised to bring them from Cuba to the United States
On November 16, 2022, the boat sank 30 miles from Cuba. In the reconstruction of the facts, it was confirmed that 18 migrants were crossing in the fishing boat, which had a capacity of eight people. In addition, according to a survivor, “many of the victims were children between 9 months and 7 years of age and two 16-year-olds.”
The autopsies performed on the four recovered bodies determined that the cause of their death was “drowning.” Arturo Verdecia, father of one of the rafters, told Telemundo last June that Domínguez-Nieves asked him for “6,000 dollars to contribute to the fuel.”
Verdecia said that his son boarded the boat named El Alba and set sail from Playa Jaimanitas, but “not with six people, as he had been told.” Three days after the shipwreck, investigators told him they had found his son’s body.
In his story he identified the survivor as Alexander Piloto, who was rescued by a second boat. According to the Coast Guard, the survivors reported having seen four people “drown immediately.”
The lifeless bodies were transferred to the Monroe County medical examiner’s office in the Florida keys. Another five bodies were later found by the U.S. Coast Guard. The survivor, Alexander Piloto, was returned to Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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