Mexico Navy Searches Caribbean for Two Missing Aid Boats Bound for Cuba

Nine people from multiple countries are unaccounted for in the Caribbean, their two sailboats loaded with rice, baby formula, beans and medicine last heard from before they were due to arrive in Havana between March 24 and 25.

Mexico's navy activated a search-and-rescue operation in the Caribbean on Thursday to locate two sailboats carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba after the vessels failed to arrive in Havana as scheduled. The navy said the two boats left Isla Mujeres, in the Mexican Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, last week bound for Havana with nine crew members of different nationalities on board. The vessels had been expected to arrive between March 24 and 25, but there had been no communication from them and no confirmation of their arrival.

According to Deccan Chronicle, the vessels set sail last Friday from Isla Mujeres and were due to arrive in Havana on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Volunteers in Mexico last week loaded the boats with rice, baby wipes, beans, baby formula, medicine and other supplies as part of the "Nuestra America Convoy," a non-government initiative seeking to deliver food, medicines and energy-related goods to the island. The two missing boats are part of a broader grassroots aid effort for energy-strapped Cuba, which has been suffering prolonged power outages and a deepening economic crisis after the U.S. tightened an embargo on oil and other goods.

A separate vessel from the convoy did arrive in Havana on Tuesday, making the silence from the two missing sailboats more pronounced. The fate of the nine crew members and the supplies they were transporting remains unknown, with no distress calls, last known coordinates, or debris reported by any authority as of the navy's announcement.

The Nuestra America Convoy has drawn no official response from Cuban authorities in the available accounts, and Mexico's navy has not publicly detailed what ships or aircraft it has deployed to the search area. The identities of the nine crew members and the names of the two vessels have not been released.