One of the migrants showed signs of severe dehydration, and some said they were from Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Río.
14ymedio, Mexico City, Angel Salinas, October 25, 2026 / The National Migration Institute (INM) is holding 10 Cuban rafters who were rescued this Saturday 12 nautical miles south of Isla Mujeres. According to a source who requested anonymity, “some are from Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Río.” This group joins the other 11 migrants who arrived in Cancún in the last month on two boats.
The migrants asked not to be returned to the island. “We want asylum,” said one of the men as he was transferred from the Fifth Naval Region and later to the Advanced Naval Station in Puerto Juárez.
The same source confirmed that the Cubans will receive assistance for the process this Monday, although it warned, “it will be handled and will depend on the internal processes of Migration.”
The group made up of men claimed to have been “adrift for four days” and it is thanks to a cruise ship that spotted them that they survived. The Fifth Naval Region received an alert about a wooden raft with several people in danger.
The Ministry of the Navy coordinated the rescue operation and sent a speedboat from the Search and Rescue Station to the location. At the site they found “one person suffering from severe dehydration and nine others who received medical assistance.”
Fisherman Javier Robles tells 14ymedio that these arrivals make “a wave of clandestine arrivals possible. A few days ago it was revealed that there were 28 abandoned boats, some used by Cubans in the Nichupté Lagoon, but there have been many more.”
Robles recalled that in 2024 a fishing boat with registration PR5348F5a was abandoned on Playa de Mascotas; it remained there, and traces of that vessel can still be found. That same year, in the area known as El Riíto, “some Cubans, upon seeing the beach nearby, jumped ashore and disappeared into the streets.”
To this are added other Cubans who arrive through coyotes. Graviel García, a Cuban originally from Havana, confirmed to this newspaper in 2022 the clandestine departures from Pinar del Río. “I never contacted the smuggler, but I do know they charged $7,000, a lot for that danger,” he said at the time.
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