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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2008 
Cuban Migrants Land in Mexico After 17 Days at Sea
 Associated Press
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| | The Cubans were detained by Mexico authorities, but most Cubans who arrive in Mexico are released after being held 90 days at an immigration center. | | |
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.
The Cubans were detained by Mexico authorities, but most Cubans who arrive in Mexico are released after being held 90 days at an immigration center. |
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