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Three years later, the sea continues to return memories that do not heal. The wound remains open in Cárdenas and in the families of those who ventured into the Florida Strait in hopes of a better life and found death.
“Binary ent group of 31 people on a rustic boat heading north, with many dreams of changing our future and that of our families,” Yaylin Mesa Vázquez wrote on Facebook, one of the survivors of the shipwreck that occurred in January 2023.
His testimony, published on the third anniversary of the tragedy, brings to life an experience he describes as "super bitter" and that still follows him every day. "We shipwrecked and to this day only 11 of us survived," he recalled.
The boat, precariously built with metal tanks, set off from the northern coast of Cárdenas. A few miles from the shore, the journey ended in chaos. The boat caught fire and then sank. Some managed to jump into the sea and swim for hours until they reached Cayo Angulo. Others were not so fortunate.
"After hours of sailing, desperation set in," Yaylin recalls. "I still have every moment etched in my mind. Sadness fills my thoughts." Among those who did not return was her sister, to whom she dedicates a promise that she vows to fulfill "even if it's the last thing I do in this life."
The journalist and activist Christian Arbolaez also remembered the victims. "Our city continues to mourn its children," he wrote. According to his account, eleven people survived, six bodies were initially recovered, and others appeared days later. Eleven rafters remain missing, leaving an equal number of families caught in an eternal wait.
The names continue to resonate in collective memory: young people like Kevin Medina, who was only 22 years old; mothers, daughters, brothers, and friends who were driven by desperation and the desire for freedom. "They all left unfinished stories," emphasizes Arbolaez.
In due course, the Cuban regime confirmed at least five fatalities and a dozen missing, although it refrained from providing an official list of victims. Family members then denounced the slow pace of search efforts and sought assistance from local fishermen, fearing that the authorities would conclude the operation too soon.
For the survivors, the shipwreck did not end at sea. It continues in memory, in shattered dreams, and in the pain that returns with each anniversary. "For those of us here, may we find strength so that this memory does not shatter our lives, but instead makes us stronger," Yaylin wrote. But she also made it clear that some losses can never be overcome: one merely learns to coexist with them.
Three years later, Cárdenas does not forget. Nor do the families who continue to gaze at the horizon, waiting for answers that the sea never returned.
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