Five Haitian fishermen who had been adrift at sea for five days arrived this Monday at the coastal town of Aguadores, in Santiago de Cuba, after their boat ran aground on the shore. What happened next surprised those who followed the story: the locals not only provided them with food and water but also played music from their country and danced with them.
The sighting of the boat —a handcrafted wooden vessel painted green, with a heavily damaged hull and exposed internal structure— triggered alarms among fishermen and coastal residents in the late afternoon and evening on Monday. According to the survivors themselves, a trough with winds and thunderstorms affecting the Caribbean area had diverted them towards the eastern shores of Cuba.
Upon landing, the five fishermen kissed the ground.
«As soon as they disembarked from the vessel, they kissed the ground. Five days adrift at sea. Five days enduring, day and night, without direction,» reported Aris Arias Batalla, Provincial Head of Operations and Relief of the Provincial Branch of the Cuban Red Cross in Santiago de Cuba, who documented the rescue and shared images and a video on his social media.
The residents of Aguadores took the initiative to provide snacks and water to the newcomers, but they went further: they played music and shared a moment of dancing with them as a form of emotional support. "The local neighbors took it upon themselves for a few minutes to offer snacks, attention, and psychological support through dance and music from their homeland, and this changed their expressions after having survived the storms," wrote Arias Batalla.
The images also depict the fishermen cooking with firewood at night, surrounded by neighbors, in a scene that reflects both the solidarity of the community and the deficiencies of the environment.
After the rescue, the authorities implemented the protocols established for such cases: medical check-up, sanitary control, and immigration verification by agents from Immigration and Foreign Affairs. Doctors and paramedics from SIUM Santiago attended to the five men, none of whom showed signs of dehydration or symptoms that would endanger their lives. The outboard motor and fishing equipment—lines and other instruments—were also removed from the vessel.
Officials from the Cuban Red Cross remained on-site as observers with the mandate to accompany the process until the safe return of the five fishermen to Haiti.
This episode adds to a recurring pattern along the eastern coast of Cuba. Just a month earlier, a vessel with 17 Haitians ran aground at Playa Siboney, also in Santiago de Cuba, after drifting for seven days, and they were repatriated at the end of September from the Antonio Maceo International Airport. In July 2025, six Haitian fishermen were rescued off the southern coast of Guamá, in the same province.
The backdrop is the severe humanitarian crisis affecting Haiti: armed gangs control between 70% and 85% of the territory in Port-au-Prince, and nearly 1.5 million people —including over 740,000 children— are internally displaced, according to UN data from October 2026.
Cuban authorities indicated that they are continuing to monitor the case and that the five fishermen will be safely returned to their country.
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