Coast Guard suspends search for 2 missing Cuban rafters; 3 taken into custody on Miami Beach

Coast Guard suspends search for 2 missing Cuban rafters; 3 taken into
custody on Miami Beach
BY ALFONSO CHARDYACHARDY@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
10/06/2014 9:20 AM 10/07/2014 10:15 AM

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for two male Cuban
migrants who went missing Monday, officials said.

Three female Cuban migrants landed in Miami Beach on Monday morning near
the intersection of Collins Avenue and 17th Street and were taken into
custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Coast Guard officials then
launched a search for two missing male rafters.

The search was called off Monday evening, officials said.

It is the second incident involving missing Cuban rafters in the last
two months.

On Aug.19, eight men and one woman sailed from Cuba on a makeshift boat
but none arrived in Miami. Last week, the Coast Guard said four bodies
found floating in the water Aug. 24 were Cuban migrants, part of the
group of nine that left the island five days earlier. The other five
have not been found.

The Coast Guard received a report about 7 a.m. Monday of three suspected
migrants in the vicinity of 17th Street and Collins Avenue in Miami
Beach and that two other migrants were unaccounted for.

Marilyn Fajardo, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami, said a boat crew
and an MH65 helicopter from Opa-locka were involved in the search, along
with a Miami-Dade fireboat and helicopter.

Fajardo said the three migrants who landed in Miami Beach are women, but
she did not have their ages or condition. Vivian Thayer, a Miami Beach
police spokeswoman, said the women included an adult and two teenagers.

Frank Miller, a Border Patrol spokesman, said the woman is the mother of
the two teenagers. According to Miller, the women indicated that the two
men might been dropped off somewhere other than Collins Avenue and 17th
Street and may not be in the water.

"We dedicated a considerable amount of time to checking this report and
we did not come up with anything," Miller said.

Officials from various agencies said the search did not reveal a boat,
raft or other makeshift boat or debris in the water.

Almost 800 rafters arrived in South Florida beaches between Oct.1, 2013,
and last month — part of a growing number of Cuban migrants arriving in
the United Sates.

Source: Coast Guard suspends search for 2 missing Cuban rafters; 3 taken
into custody on Miami Beach | The Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/deadline-miami/article2531151.html