Cuban man travels to USA in homemade boat -- made out of styrofoam

ALFONSO CHARDY The Miami Herald 07/14/2010 16:30

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.

A Cuban migrant who ostensibly floated at sea in the Florida Straits for 25 days aboard a seven-foot makeshift Styrofoam boat remained aboard a U.S. Coast Guard vessel Wednesday morning as American officials weighed whether to return him to Cuba or let him come ashore for hospital care.

Marilyn Fajardo, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami, said her agency cannot provide any details on the migrant until a decision is made. But she noted that, in general, any migrants rescued at sea are given medical attention, food, water and clothing after they arrive on a cutter.

The case has drawn worldwide attention because of the circumstances and questions surrounding the voyage from Cuba and how the man managed to survive -- perhaps without enough or any food and water for more than three weeks.

Yanik Fenton, a spokeswoman for Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said her office constantly receives calls from family members in South Florida and other parts of the country who are awaiting arrivals from Cuba, but that in this case no one has called to claim the Styrofoam boat migrant.

Juan A. Muñoz Torres, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, provided a few more details on the migrant, indicating that, despite having been on the boat exposed to the elements, he did not appear to be in critical condition.

``Apparently, he did not require hospitalization,'' Muñoz said Wednesday by telephone from his office in Washington. ``He was dehydrated, but he was provided with an IV by personnel on the cutter.''

If the migrant does not need emergency hospital care, then it's possible he might be sent back to Cuba.

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