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The fleet that will sail to the maritime border with Cuba in support of Cubans protesting against the dictatorship in that country will set sail this Friday from the Port of Miami, according to its organizers.
The departure was scheduled for last Monday, but the group of young Cubans from Miami that organizes it decided, after meeting with representatives of the U.S. Coast Guard, to postpone it in order to “do things better” and provide more security to an initiative that has had a lot of echo in the media and the Cuban community in South Florida.
In the last few hours, they published on an Instagram account the travel plan, which will begin on Friday morning in Biscayne Bay near downtown Miami.
“It took us a little while to announce it because we were waiting for the Coast Guard and weather conditions,” Osdany Veloz, one of the organizers, wrote on Instagram.
The boats, whose number will be known tomorrow, will sail about four hours from Miami to Key West, where they will refuel and be checked by the Coast Guard before setting sail to the point where they will gather to launch fireworks and light Chinese lanterns.
At that point, about 15 miles from Cuba, the boats will turn off their engines and drift, but must correct their position every 15 minutes, according to the plan published on the networks.
The goal is to let Cubans on the island know that they are not alone in their struggle against the dictatorial regime that has held power in Cuba since January 1959.
The “feet of support for Cuba” has created a web page to inform about this initiative and collect donations to pay for the expenses that has as its header the phrase “Patria y vida”, the title of the song that has become an anthem for those who want a change of course on the island.
The Cuban exile and Cuban community in Miami have responded to the social outburst that occurred in Cuba on July 11 with demonstrations of support and denunciations of the repression exercised against the protesters.
They have also made insistent requests to the U.S. Government not to ease the pressure on Cuban authorities and to lead an “intervention” on the island, but President Joe Biden has so far not responded with concrete measures to these demands.
