Cuban Rafters Rescued in Mexico and Caribbean as Sea Routes Surge

Two Rescues in One Weekend

The weekend of February 15-16 laid bare a reality many feared: maritime routes from Cuba are surging again. In just 48 hours, at least 13 Cubans were rescued in two separate incidents across Caribbean waters.

Seven Rafters Off Quintana Roo

The Mexican Navy, through its Eleventh Naval Zone, rescued seven Cuban migrants who shipwrecked near Banco Chinchorro, a coral atoll off the coast of Quintana Roo. The rafters were first spotted by local fishermen from the community of Mahahual, who alerted authorities.

After the rescue, the seven Cubans were transferred to shore, where medical and immigration protocols were activated. All were reportedly suffering from dehydration and exhaustion but had no serious injuries.

Six Rescued by a Royal Caribbean Cruise

A day earlier, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Radiance of the Seas came to a complete stop in waters near Cuba after detecting a vessel in distress. Passengers who documented the rescue on social media described the ship remaining motionless while the operation was coordinated.

“We are completely stranded waiting for the rescue of six people,” wrote passenger Mike Hoglander in a Facebook group. Another passenger on Reddit explained that the captain spotted the boat and stopped the ship in compliance with international maritime laws requiring assistance to people in danger at sea.

When the U.S. Coast Guard was unable to respond, the cruise crew conducted the rescue themselves. The rafters’ boat was already taking on water when they were reached. All six were brought aboard and later disembarked in the Cayman Islands, where they were placed in the custody of Customs and Border Control (CBC).

The Cayman Islands: An Involuntary Destination

Cayman Islands authorities confirmed that the six rescued individuals are adult Cuban men being processed under the British Overseas Territory’s immigration laws.

The archipelago has become an increasingly frequent arrival — or rescue — point for Cuban rafters. So far in 2026, the Cayman Islands have repatriated 13 Cubans to Havana, while another 23 remain in custody awaiting processing.

Caymanian authorities have warned they are preparing for a possible surge of irregular migrants from Cuba in the coming weeks.

The Nicaragua Effect

These rescues don’t happen in a vacuum. In early February 2026, Nicaragua eliminated visa-free travel for citizens of 128 countries, including Cuba. This decision definitively closed the so-called “volcano route,” the migration corridor that since 2021 had allowed Cubans to fly to Managua and make the overland journey to the U.S. southern border.

With the land route closed and legal migration pathways to the U.S. largely eliminated by the Trump administration — which canceled humanitarian parole, suspended CBP One, and froze visa processing for Cubans — options have narrowed drastically.

For many, the raft is once again the only way out.

A Recurring Pattern

Cuban migration history is marked by cycles of crisis and maritime exodus. The 1994 rafter crisis, when more than 35,000 Cubans took to the Florida Strait, led to migration agreements between Washington and Havana.

Thirty-two years later, the conditions that triggered that crisis are repeating in amplified form: a collapsed economy, constant blackouts, food and medicine shortages, and now the closure of virtually all legal migration routes.

The difference is that in 2026, Cubans who arrive by sea no longer benefit from the “wet foot, dry foot” policy repealed by Obama in 2017. Being rescued at sea or reaching shore no longer guarantees anything.

The Deadly Risk

Maritime crossings from Cuba are extremely dangerous. The Florida Strait, with its strong currents and unpredictable weather, has claimed thousands of lives over the decades. Improvised vessels — tire rafts, overloaded fishing boats, boards tied together with rope — are rarely equipped for the journey.

The seven rescued in Mexico likely departed from Cuba’s northern coast bound for the Yucatán Peninsula, a crossing of at least 200 kilometers of open sea. The six rescued near Cuba may have been heading for Florida’s coast, over 150 kilometers away.

In both cases, they survived. Many others are not as fortunate, and their stories are never told.