14ymedio, Mexico, December 5, 2023 — The Mexican Navy rescued seven Cuban rafters and a dog this Monday who were adrift on a boat 76 nautical miles from Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo. According to the authorities, a foreign ship detected the migrants because of the barking of a dog and provided details of several people on “a small wooden raft that was propelled by a sail” who were asking for help.
Upon arriving at the scene, the sailors found two women, five men and the pet, who were put on an official boat and taken to land. One of the rafters said that “he had not drunk water or eaten for two days” and that there had come a time when he thought they would die at sea.
The authorities told them that, after being examined by a doctor and receiving food at the Puerto Juárez naval station, they would be handed over to Immigration. One of the women asked the sailors not to deport them. “We don’t want them to put us in jail.” she said. “If they return us they will treat us like criminals.”
Immigration personnel arrived at the naval station and after talking with the rafters, they were allowed to take the animal. The Cubans asked for refuge, so the agents told them that this procedure had to be carried out at the offices of the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Co
