Boat found in 2012 is part of the decoration of a restaurant in the Florida Keys

A small boat in which nine Cubans from Cárdenas, Matanzas arrived on the coast of Florida in 2012, forms a special part of the decoration of a restaurant in Cayo Marathon, according to revealed the journalist of Univision, Javier Díaz.

Images released by the communicator show how inside the wooden boat -exposed in Paradise Cuban Restaurant- You can still see the engine, compass and other basic survival items that were found inside the boat.

“What has become of their lives in the United States more than a decade after making this dangerous trip?”, the journalist asks, opening a question that perhaps the protagonists themselves are willing to answer, who apparently are not linked to the owners of the premises.

In recent decades, there have been hundreds of boats of all types found on the coasts of Florida, each one carrying a story: some with a happy ending and others as silent testimony of the deepest pain and desolation.

Although the boats are museum pieces and are highly emotional for the Cuban community, Florida law defines them as dangerous vessels that cannot remain in the water. They must be destroyed, preferably on land, which generates expenses in the public budget.

It is prescribed that in the case of boats with a useful life, those who find them can claim ownership, although it generates an administrative process that can take up to four months, with fees that can reach around $600.

In 2021 it was news that Matthew Sexton, businessman from Florida, had made the decision to start collecting all types of boats in which Cuban rafters travel to the coasts of that state, with the purpose of putting them on display.

“I want to do something to tell the story of these men,” he stated in a special report published then by Telemundo 51.

Sexton even claimed that he had met the last 12 Cuban rafters to make landfall in the Keys before the end of the Dry Feet, Wet Feet Policy went into effect in 2017, and said that was one of the boats he had. in his power.

Cuban rafters, testimony of a crisis

Although in recent years the United States government has insisted that any person who attempts or arrives illegally by sea will not be able to remain in the country and will be returned to their country of origin or the country of departure, Cuban rafters persist. in its purpose, although in figures much lower than those prior to January 2023, the date on which the humanitarian parole program opened a new escape route on the island.

Migrants who arrive by sea and are detained by the Border Patrol after touching US soil are processed to be returned to their country of origin by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and the Office of Enforcement and Removal (ERO), with a ban on legally re-entering the country for five years.

CBP revealed in its latest monthly report that 19,571 Cubans arrived in the United States through irregular routes last March. Of them, 5,323 did so in South Florida (Miami Sector and Miami Field Office) and another 631 in the Tampa sector.