Cuban migrants land on Mexican coast
Cuban migrants land on Mexican coast after 17 days at sea on rickety boat
The Associated PressPublished: May 13, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/ ... taways.php
CANCUN, Mexico: An attempt to reach Florida turned into 17 days at sea for Cuban migrants crammed aboard a rickety sailboat that drifted ashore in Mexico near the Belize border.
The migrants — 12 men and two women — were severely dehydrated when they landed Saturday and two of them had to be hospitalized, local deputy police chief Didier Vasquez Mendez said.
"These people survived by a miracle. The boat was made of sticks, very small and not seaworthy," Vazquez Mendez said Monday. "Plus they ran out of water."
The migrants told reporters they drank urine with sugar in their efforts to survive.
The tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula near Cancun is only 120 miles (190 kilometers) southwest of Cuba. But the migrants landed in Xcalak, a town near the border with Belize more than 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cancun.
Cubans migrants hoping to avoid detection by the U.S. Coast Guard are increasingly heading to Mexico in hopes of then reaching the United States by land.
But the 14 migrants told reporters they had been trying to reach Florida when they found themselves adrift.
They were detained by Mexico authorities, but most Cubans who arrive in Mexico are released after being held 90 days at an immigration center.
Jamison Jones, a New York native doing volunteer work in Mexico, said he saw the boat land on the beach and gave the migrants water.
He said the wooden boat was about 15 feet (4.5 meters) long and held together with fiberglass.
"They were really crammed in there," Jones told The Associated Press by telephone. "It was the most amazing boat."
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But they are not telling us where they are released after being held 90 days.
My bet is on the American border!
