Airborne U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, discovered a Cuban man after he apparently had floated in the Caribbean Sea for 25 days in a small, homemade vessel. The small vessel, about seven feet long and custom-built out of Styrofoam, was found about 51 miles south of Marathon. Once a Coast Guard vessel arrived, they transferred the castaway to their ship. The man was severely dehydrated and said he left the Havana, Cuba, area on June 20.
The vessel wasn't in the same class as the 1951 Chevy truck outfitted as a boat that made worldwide headlines in 2003, but the tiny Styrofoam boat had the same purpose: to carry a migrant from Cuba to the United States.
A U.S. surveillance aircraft patrolling the Florida Straits spotted the makeshift, seven-foot vessel 51 miles south of Marathon and, on closer inspection, discovered a man aboard who turned out to be a severly dehydrated Cuban migrant adrift for 25 days, federal authorities said Tuesday night.
A statement from Customs and Border Protection did not say when the Styrofoam boat was found, and officials could not be reached Tuesday to confirm the date. However, CBP said the man told them he had left Cuba on June 20, which indicates he was discovered over the weekend.
Cuban migrants intercepted at sea are generally repatriated, and those who reach U.S. shores are generally allowed to stay. Of those picked up at sea, if doctors determine they need emergency hospital attention, they are brought ashore.
| Bring this man to America. If he can invent a styrofoam boat he's an American. |
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