In the afternoon of March 1, 2022, the Border Guard Troops detected a speedboat that approached the north coast of Cayo Coco, Ciego de Ávila, and picked up a group of people, after which it headed northwest.

A surface unit of the Border Guard Troops managed to reach it 11 miles from Cayo Coco, within Cuban territorial waters, when the offending vessel stopped due to apparent technical problems. The passengers began to jump into the water, for which the crew of the Cuban naval medium immediately undertook rescue actions. Meanwhile, the boat resumed the journey.

During the subsequent maritime maneuvers, the speedboat and the border guard ship, both of similar size, collided. As a result, three people who remained on board the first suffered injuries, one of them seriously, who died on the evacuation route to land.In total, 21 irregular migrants, 4 women and 17 men, were rescued at sea.

As part of the existing cooperation with counterpart bodies in the area, exchanges took place in real time with the Coast Guard Service liaison based at the United States Embassy in Havana.

In recent weeks, there has been an increase in acts involving the use of violence by international human traffickers, endangering the physical integrity of both irregular migrants and combatants from the Ministry of the Interior.

Given these facts, Cuba ratifies that it continues to bet on regular, orderly and safe emigration.

The competent authorities continue the investigations for the total clarification of the facts.

Ministry of Interior