A Cuban treated for colon cancer risked his life by surfboarding 90 miles before being intercepted by the US Coast Guard in the Florida Keys.
Elian Lopez, 48, set off on a rescue journey from the Cuban resort town of Varadero on Tuesday and was stopped on Wednesday about 15 miles south of Islamorada.
Lopez was wearing a life jacket, GPS and several cell phones when the Coast Guard ship found him.
His wife contacted relatives in Miami to inform them that her dehydrated husband was lost at sea, ABC affiliate WPLG said.
They contacted the Coast Guard before a rescue mission was launched.
“He had security equipment, which is very necessary when we are looking for people,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Martin McAdams told WPLG.
Elian Lopez risked his life windsurfing from Cuba to the United States and was intercepted by the US Coast Guard when he got lost at sea on Wednesday. Family members reported on social media that the 48-year-old worked as a diving instructor in the resort town of Varadero but emigrated to the US in hopes of receiving treatment for colon cancer.
The US Coast Guard was able to find Elian Lopez after he contacted his wife and told her he was lost at sea on Wednesday, a day after escaping Cuba in search of treatment for his colon cancer diagnosis.
Lopez worked as a diving instructor but was unable to cover the costs due to his illness, according to a Change.org petition initiated Thursday by a family member named Dunia Rodriguez.
“Yesterday he threw himself into the sea on a surfboard in search of freedom, and above all in a delicate condition with an illness that requires urgent treatment, which he did not have in Cuba, which led him to this desperate decision,” Rodriguez wrote. . in Spanish.
The petition has garnered 818 signatures out of 1,000 the family is seeking to prevent his return to Cuba.
“The world has already been able to see how the Cuban dictatorship treats Cubans,” Rodriguez added. “Let’s not let them continue to take the lives of the people we love.”
US Coast Guard officers are looking for Elian Lopez, who was found lost at sea 15 miles south of Islamorada on Wednesday.
Family members took to social media and started a Change.org petition in the hope that Elian Lopez would not be repatriated to Cuba so that he could be treated for colon cancer. A 48-year-old man fled a communist Caribbean island on Tuesday and was rescued by the US Coast Guard in the Florida Keys. He required medical attention due to dehydration
The Coast Guard and US Customs and Border Protection recorded a surge in encounters with Cuban migrants at sea and in the southwestern land border area.
Figures released by the Coast Guard on Tuesday show 1,053 Cubans have been detained in the waters since October 1, 2021, the start of fiscal year 2022.
The total numbers dwarf the sum for the previous two fiscal years, when there were 838 cases in fiscal 2021 and just 49 in the previous 12-month period.
“The risk to life when going to sea is great,” said Lieutenant of the Seventh Coast Guard District E’Bria Karega.
At least 22 Cubans who were stopped in three separate incidents off the coast of Florida were repatriated to the communist island on Wednesday.
A recent CBP monthly report showed that the number of Cuban migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border skyrocketed in February, with US Border Patrol agents reporting 16,531 detentions.
The number of encounters was the highest monthly figure on record.
The total number of bans has risen steadily since October 1, 2021, the start of fiscal year 2022.
There were 5,893 encounters with Cuban migrants in October and 6,606 in November. December ended the year with 7,983 and in January there were 9,720 illegal border crossings.
Cubans who fled the Socialist-ruled island were allowed to remain in the United States under President Bill Clinton’s “wet feet, dry feet” policy of 1995, which revised the Cuba Adjustment Act of 1966.
The legislation also gave them the right to become residents within a year.
However, President Barack Obama lifted the immigration policy in January 2017 by signing an executive order ending a longstanding law granting permanent residence to Cubans arriving in the country.