Family and friends of a young Cuban man who disappeared while trying to emigrate to the United States on a raft are desperate for help finding him.
A family friend, who identified himself on Facebook as Yanniel Palenzuela Suarez from Holguín, posted pictures of the young man on the social network and said he disappeared while trying to leave the country by sea.
According to the brief information, there were 10 people on the raft.
However, eight were found alive after a suspected shipwreck two remain missingincluding this young man who his friend calls Pancho.
The missing man’s sister, Martica Manrreza Rodríguez, assures that they are desperate and begging for a miracle.
Facebook post
“I sure hope so, I’m desperate, God knows I’m in a lot of pain that I can’t bear. I really want to hug my little brother how much I love him,” she posted.
Palenzuela Suárez asks anyone who sees him to notify his family. However, he does not provide any further information about the location of the shipwreck or the date of his disappearance, which would be helpful in the search.
He states that the young man’s mother was distressed when he was away and that she must be very distressed now.
Amid the migration crisis that the country has been facing since 2021, which has led to thousands of people embarking on dangerous journeys by sea and land, migrations of Cuban raftsmen along the island’s coasts are very frequent.
At least last week it turned out that In August, 12,762 Cubans entered the country to the United States, according to figures released Friday by the Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The report from this body, which updated the August figures, shows that at least 6,760 immigrants entered the country by land and by land 5,937 by sea.
Many rafters disappear and their relatives wait for years for them to reappear.
Last week relatives of Cuban rafters disappeared last year They said they had not lost hope of finding them, according to several families contacted by journalist Mario Vallejo.
The South Florida-based journalist confirms that he is in a group chat with dozens of families of missing rafters and that they are continuing the investigation and maintaining the belief that they will see the migrants again. He says he reads messages like this every day from mothers, sisters, fathers, grandmothers and other relatives or friends who have left but never arrived.
“Love and hope go hand in hand. This conversation is an example of the faith people have in searching for a sign, no matter how minimal, that will satisfy their longing. How much pain I feel when I see that there are people who do talk to them about strange and confusing things that at first give them hope but then depress them because they are wrong and make these mothers call “To write, to go to the deepest depths and to cling to the smallest comments,” she said.