Cuban drowns in local rough seas
One of the inner tubes used by Cuban migrants to reach shore (Photo by Rosie McNamee)
(CNS): A Cuban migrant drowned Saturday evening in rough seas off the coast of South Sound when the makeshift boat that he and three other men were in capsized. Police said that they received a report on Saturday evening that an 18 ft. vessel was floating near Sand Quay Island, South Sound, and four people were in the water. Members of the public helped the men and brought them ashore but one of the migrants was unconscious. A doctor who was at the scene rendered CPR but he was unable to revive the man. The four were said to be on their way to Honduras and had attempted to seek safe harbour when they encountered the rough seas and their vessel was overturned by a strong wave.
Officials stated that the three survivors are currently in the care of the immigration department and the circumstances surrounding the death of the Cuban migrant, identified as Manuel Marino, is currently under investigation by the RCIPS Marine Unit.
The men reportedly reached the shore clinging to two inner tubes with the help of local surfers before they were taken into the custody of immigration officials. Sources also say the local police had been watching the wooden sailboat during the day but took no part in the rescue.
Category: Local News
So, let me understand this, they had no way to communicate to the Chopper nor to anyone else, the Police (air or land unit) saw no distress indications but some surfers, obviously, had a different opinion and risked their lives to save them. I would expect the force to be better trained in “risk assessment” if they did not foresee that they would be in trouble with that weather or, never thought about coming back to check on them…. that is the value a Cuban life got for them. At the end we have a clear video of a sailing boat in rough seas escorted by a police boat, a helicopter and a ship in one hand, in the other one, a funeral and a badly injured surfer, care to justified that?
You really are not in touch with the Cuban policy of these Islands, that is the massive problem here. Scores of these boats pass the Islands, and they are always allowed to pass with no intervention – possibly to their death in the sea beyond Cayman, who knows? It is not the Marine Unit or Helicopter Unit that decide on that. The surfers appear to have become involved when the boat did get into trouble after it turned back. Either the authorities policy is to detain them or continue to let them sort themselves out. You cannot have it both ways. To protect their lives, they should not be allowed to continue – ever, I agree with you on that.
MOU between Cuba and Cayman is a whole subject by itself, I’m quite familiar with it, basically Cuban government cannot control their borders and “negotiate” with Cayman so we do their job if they came around, the sole fact that the policy is “if I help you I will send you back home because Cuba wants it done that way” is an atrocious blackmail. But that is not what happened here, boat in distress=help, plain and simple.
Picking up the pieces, don’t make me laugh like the last time the patrol boat ram and sank a old vessel with Cuban children on board who by the way wrote a nice little article in the Tampa Tribune after trying and failing to do something about it here. Yes some would like to believe these spin doctors on here twisting and turning time and circumstances to favor this very incompetent and inept and corrupt law enforcement apparatus we have in place here. Oh but the truth is very hard to smother especially for a police service run also by arrogance and indifference even to the native population.
I wouldn’t put to much faith in an article’s so called “Sources”. Police are human first and police well after the fact. All sea goers follow an unwritten code to be thy brothers keeper. There’s no way the police would stand by and leave a boat in distress with lives at stake. Lets use a bit of common sense here.
The article is clear. The Police received a report on Saturday afternoon about the boat, that is a fact, they knew since 10:00 am and they took no actions until late the afternoon. they deployed a helicopter and a boat for a boat 80 miles from cayman and LET ONE MAN DIE A FEW METERS FROM THEIR SHORE. once again, lucky them nor the three survivors nor the Cuban govt will do nothing about it. i guess that is the value a Cuban life got for them.
Isn’t Sand Cay?
Well, according to the “INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON MARITIME SEARCH AND RESCUE” we failed. RCIPS witnessed a vessel on distress, according to this article, and the “no action” steps that followed it facilitated the death of a human being. Lucky they are that this Cubans do not have the resources or the Cuban government support to bring this matter to the international courts.
The Police took forever to show up. If it hadn’t had been for all the surfers and bystanders on the beach who got involved, it would have been 4 dead bodies.
Watching the Boat are you kidding me! you mean at Wendy’s watching their gut and driving around wasting fuel in Police vehicles. Took no part in Rescue wow! What a disgrace from a law enforcement and safety point of view A person has lost his life and all this despicable police Service is come up with is a Flimsy excuse? When Derek Haines ran that unit this type of bull%$# never happened. Joint Marine Unit rescues sailboat$$$$ though.