When Dainier Martínez saw the lights in the distance, he thought of a ship.
He swam and swam, chasing after it in the gloom, until his glow changed into the bulbs and lanterns of an island.
He passed out on reaching shore and, when he woke up in the morning, he was in Florida.
On the morning of September 23, he and 26 other people left Matanzas, Cuba, in a rustic boat that capsized days later a few miles from Stock Island, Florida, the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) told Noticias Telemundo. .
Dainier, 29, was on board with his brother Jorge Luis and his wife Mairelis Peña.
Some relatives and friends from Canimar, the town where they lived, and other people from El Campestre, a neighboring community, were also traveling.
"I don't even know what time we sank," he
told Noticias Telemundo.
For a while they clung to what was left of the boat they built, but he decided to let go, swim, and search for land.
[Nine Cuban migrants survive the sinking of their boat off Florida by Hurricane Ian. There are still 18 missing]
His face appeared in the news on September 29, when a local media interviewed him.
They did not give his name, they only said that he was a Cuban migrant rescued in the Keys after the devastating passage of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall the day before as a category 4 hurricane in Florida and left more than 100 dead, according to the most recent counts. .
The people from the wreck have not been officially identified.
"We are like crazy, we don't know anything
," lamented from Cuba, María Cabrera, aunt of Maikel Yero, one of the disappeared.
Three couples were on the boat.
From left to right: Carolina Gutiérrez and Vidal Velázquez;
Jorge Luis Martínez and Mairelis Peña;
Marisley Lopez and Fernando Gutierrez.
Photos: Courtesy.
On September 30, he asked his neighbors if they knew anyone who traveled in the boat.
This is how he managed to send us this list: Maikel Yero Mora, Carolina Gutiérrez and Vidal Velázquez, Alexey Perera, Marisley López and Fernando Gutiérrez, Jorge Luis Martínez and Mairelis Peña.
The little that is known has been told by their families: Carolina Gutiérrez was 19 years old and her husband, Vidal Velázquez, 24. Carolina was "the girl" loved by her father, Fernando Gutiérrez, who was on the boat with his wife Marisley López, Dainier's cousin.
He remembers seeing her when she started swimming.
“I passed Marisley, a cousin of mine, by the side and she's like, 'No!
why are you leaving?'
and I told him 'look all those people are going to drown there, that is sinking'”.
When he turned around, no one was there.
She thinks she swam for two miles.
"I couldn't take it anymore, but God helped me and managed to get me to the shore."
The sheriff's office in the Keys announced Sunday that it has recovered the bodies of four women and one man.
"Detectives believe they are all Cuban migrants
," the statement said, without offering more details than where they were found.
The Coast Guard is looking for 20 migrants who were shipwrecked near Key West in the middle of the hurricane
Sept.
28, 202200:28
According to Danier, five women left Cuba.
This Sunday, he and his cousin, Elvio Ramírez, traveled to a hospital in Key West and found that three had died.
"Carolina's grandmother identified the body," they say.
They do not know the names of the other two, they were only told that one is blonde with “a tattoo on her arm” and that the other is “dark”.
[“I want to start a normal life”: a Cuban crosses the Rio Grande with only one leg and portrays the drama of the exodus]
In the United States, Maikel Yero's cousin, Suleidys Montoya, contacted hospitals and searched for information about him for days.
This Sunday she confirmed that she had died.
She identified him from a tattoo on his leg and is now finding out how to repatriate his body.
The process, she says, costs her $10,000 that she can't afford.
Maikel Yero in family posts on Facebook. Photos: Courtesy.
“
It is a great pain for the whole family to know that a relative of one dies in these conditions
”, says María, Maikel's aunt from Cuba.
He was a bricklayer and father of four.
"He went out to find a future for his children."
In Cuba "you work hard but it's for fun, here you don't earn enough," he says.
He was cheerful, "a very good boy."
He was 38 years old.
Elvio is the grandfather of Maikel's eldest daughter.
The girl has asked about her father and her mother does not know how to break the news to her.
"How do I tell my girl,
how do I tell her that her father is dead, how do I tell her that her father is no longer there
," her daughter asked Elvio.
[Ian's damages in Florida could be as high as $47 billion. So you can protect his money from natural catastrophes]
The United States Coast Guard reported that, from the first day of October 2021 to June 23, 2022,
39 Cubans died
traveling irregularly "in unsafe, rustic and overloaded vessels."
"Even one death is too many
," said Captain Benjamin Golightly, Coast Guard District Seven Response Chief, who urged people to seek safe and legal ways to migrate "instead of enduring the dangers of the high seas."
In September, the figure increased to 64 migrants, but the institution did not specify the nationality of the victims.
As of September 30,
6,182 Cubans have been intercepted trying to enter the United States by sea
.
Compared to 838 in fiscal year 2021, 49 in 2020;
and 313 in 2019.
It is a great pain for the whole family to know that a relative of one dies in these conditions "
María Cabrera AUNT OF one of the victims
The highest recent number is 5,396 in fiscal year 2016.
The Coast Guard announced Sunday that it was suspending the search for 16 people "pending further information."
"Total helplessness" on the island
"Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis, at least since the 1990s," Jorge Duany, an expert on migration issues and director of the Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute, told Noticias Telemundo.
For him, there is a "perfect storm" of social, political, health and economic factors that have led thousands of Cubans to leave the island in record numbers.
Thousands of people protest in Cuba due to the lack of electricity after the passage of Hurricane Ian
Oct. 1, 202200:57
Although some have traveled overland, flying first to Nicaragua, not everyone can afford it.
"The costs of these trips are very high,
it is reported as 7,000 or 8,000 dollars
in some cases," says the expert.
Those who decide to go by raft "do not have the resources to finance the other path."
Maykel Yero thought of reaching the United States by land and tried to sell his house to pay for the trip but could not, his family said.
"Imagine the madness in Cuba, how Cuba is, everyone is desperate," says Suleidys, his cousin.
[Total Blackout: Hurricane Ian Leaves Entire Cuba Without Power After Causing Power System Collapse]
"People are terrified inside Cuba
," says activist Salomé Bacallao, who also cites the lack of access to food, water, internet and electricity in cases of emergency such as Hurricane Ian, which, after its passage on September 27, caused a total blackout and protests on the island, followed by government repression.
There is "a state of terror and total helplessness," he laments.
What is known about the disappeared?
Before surviving the shipwreck, Dainier was a bricklayer.
He remembers that he always wanted to leave the island and intended to do so by sea.
"It's dangerous, but freedom is worth more than the danger we run," he replied to a local media outlet when he arrived in Florida.
He told his family that he was leaving, but others left without telling anyone.
Leaving Cuba by sea is not only dangerous, it is also illegal.
There are already more than 100 fatalities due to the passage of Hurricane Ian in Florida
Oct. 4, 202200:22
He does not remember certain dates and details but says that "together they helped" to organize the trip and build the boat, that the engine failed and the hurricane hit them.
Among the disappeared is his brother Jorge Luis Martínez, 32 years old, father of four;
two of them with his wife Mairelis Peña, whose body is waiting to be identified with a DNA test.
"He wanted to save everyone and in the end he was not saved
," two other survivors told the family.
After seeing that his wife drowned, and believing that the same thing happened to his brother, Jorge Luis said goodbye: "Tell my children that I love them very much."
He stayed behind and they lost sight of him.
Marisley López and her husband Fernando Gutiérrez were also on the boat.
Elvio has been told that he could be at a Customs and Border Protection facility, but he has not been able to confirm this.
"Nine Cuban migrants (adult men) have been taken into Border Patrol custody," the agency told Noticias Telemundo on September 30.
Fernando is the father of Carolina Gutiérrez, who dated her husband Vidal Velázquez.
"I realized that they were ready for the trip when I already saw them there at the place where the boat was," says Dainier.
[Hurricane Ian rescue operation is largest in Florida history]
She did not survive the shipwreck and the news has been devastating for her family.
"Carolina's mother is hospitalized, she is in the hospital," says Maikel's aunt, who lives in the same town.
Fernando "adored his daughter," adds Elvio.
"He looked through the eyes of his girl."
After passing through Cuba, Ian aggravated the problems facing the island.
Photo from September 27. YAMIL LAGE / AFP via Getty Images
Elvio is Vidal's uncle and a DNA test will be done to confirm if one of the bodies found is his nephew's.
The young man worked at El Bahía, a restaurant in Matanzas.
"My sister is devastated in Cuba,"
he says.
He says that he would have tried to convince him not to travel, but he did not know in time.
"I saw that child being born."
Until now, many migrants from this shipwreck remain anonymous.
Some publications on social networks name Amarilys Malagón among the disappeared.
"The boat he was on sank," says someone who identifies himself as his cousin and asks for information.
Noticias Telemundo contacted this user but has not responded.
The news reaches Cuba in a trickle.
Many are false leads, which is why
families ask friends or acquaintances in the United States for help.
Elvio, who lives in Miami, is one of them.
He has visited hospitals and detention centers requesting information.
It hasn't been easy, he says.
[Cuba asks the United States for help to alleviate the damage of Hurricane Ian]
"If you get to see how people write to me, you cry because
they tell me 'I'm desperate, I don't know anything, what happened, tell me
,' what can I tell them if it's a problem here wherever we go," she acknowledges.
Photographs of the rescued bodies circulated on social networks and messaging services.
Those who share them "have no feelings, what they do is hurt," she claims.
Many Latinos work cleaning what Ian devastated: "The worst thing is seeing children's things destroyed"
Oct. 3, 202202:04
The absence of reliable information on this type of shipwreck increases "the anxiety and suffering of their loved ones," says expert Jorge Duany.
According to him there is "a dehumanization of undocumented migrants" for trying to enter the country clandestinely and "little public sympathy is noted" for their situation and that of their families.
Coast Guard: "Do not travel by sea"
The Coast Guard and the Customs and Border Protection Office have insisted on the dangers of this journey.
"The sea has unpredictable weather and currents that make it an unforgiving environment aboard a homemade boat," CBP warned.
"Don't risk your life
. "
If you get to see how people write to me, you cry because they tell me 'I'm desperate, I don't know anything, what happened, tell me'"
Elvio Ramírez Relative of the disappeared
There are many factors against it: the weather, the precarious condition of the boats, the hostile conditions of the journey, the lack of knowledge of the sea and the lack of supplies such as water and food to survive the journey.
"A high proportion of these trips end in a tragedy," underlines the specialist in migration issues, who also indicates that "the chances of being detected and returned to Cuba are greater."
“It was a tragedy”
When Dainier woke up after passing out on the shore, he found people who gave him clothes, water and food.
Almost a week after the shipwreck, he remains hopeful that others have survived.
Cuba asks the United States for help to alleviate the damage of Hurricane Ian
Oct. 1, 202200:44
As of Tuesday night, according to Elvio's count, five people have been identified as victims.
The authorities contacted him and thus confirmed the names of his relatives.
Vidal, Marisley and Jorge Luis, still do not appear.
Danier hopes that his brother is detained and that, if he is deported, "they send him healthy and that he is well,
I prefer that he be alive in Cuba and not dead here in the United States
. "
If you live in the United States and are looking for information about a missing family member who may be in Coast Guard custody, "you should contact your local government representative," the agency says. You can do this by typing “US representative” into Google, followed by your zip code. The House of Representatives also has a directory available
here
.