Posted on 02/21/2014 11:09:31 AM PST by nickcarraway
A Cuban migrant who disappeared while trying to windsurf across the Florida Straits has been found adrift on his board
A Cuban migrant who disappeared while trying to windsurf across the Florida Straits has been found adrift on his board.
Coast Guard officials say a recreational boater found the man Thursday about 10 miles south of Big Pine Key. Ensign Peter Bermont tells The Key West Citizen that the man was dehydrated and exhausted but otherwise uninjured.
Bermont says U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is investigating and will determine whether the man will be taken back to Cuba.
The man was one of three migrants who left Jibacoa, Cuba, on Tuesday. One made it to Key West more than nine hours later and told authorities that he lost sight of the others about 60 miles south of Key West.
The third migrant remains missing.
Based on the wet foot, dry foot policy, he’s got a rendezvous with a third country, from where he will presumably attempt to enter the US again via a less hazardous means (i.e. he’ll be dropped off a few miles from shore in a dinghy or some such) and this time succeed.
Close enough. Let him in.
Too bad he didn’t have a support team of 40, a multi-million dollar budget, and piles of corporate sponsors, or he might have been able to swim the distance and be called a hero and honored with all sorts of awards. It seems he was just another hopelessly impoverished Cuban taking a shot at a little freedom, while the rich Americans were swimming over the hundreds of Cuban bodies at the bottom of the channel. Interesting juxtaposition.
Best post of the day. You are a terrific writer and a better human.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.