14ymedio, Havana, 31 January 2024 — Raúl Martínez Torres, the Cuban who went missing from the group of 13 rafters who were rescued this Monday by a cruise ship and taken to Mexico, died during the trip. “He died of hypothermia and hunger on January 16 during the crossing,” Osiel Hernández told 14ymedio, explaining that the young man’s body “was thrown into the sea” on the crossing. On Tuesday, his family had “a photo of the boy to keep watch over him,” he adds.
Before he left the Island, Martínez Torres had doubts but decided to go on the raft in search of the American dream despite the fact that he “didn’t know how to swim.” The others took care of him as far as possible, but “his health deteriorated even more due to the lack of food,” explained Hernández, who is in now in Mexico, waiting for a response from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to be able to travel to the United States.
They ran out of food and relied on fishing for several days. However, Martínez Torres stopped eating. He was shivering and not making any sense before he died. They kept his body for days, “but it began to decompose,” and they decided to throw it into the sea, says Hernández
Hernández regrets the death of his compatriot. “Unfortunately, Cuba forces us to do these thi
