By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-19 15:16:16 | Updated at 2026-10-19 21:42:18
8 hours ago
A Cuban man found floating off the coast of Florida last week on what appeared to be a one-man vessel made of wood and foam says he was attempting to fish and never intended to reach the United States.
38-year-old Enrique René Reyes Martínez spoke via phone with Miami’s Univisión affiliate this weekend from Havana, where he was swiftly repatriated after being rescued by U.S. Coast Guard officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations (CBP AMO) published a shocking photo of Reyes on Tuesday floating alone at sea, warning Cuban nationals not to attempt the deadly voyage across the Straits of Florida to escape communism, as thousands had died in the attempt and those who were identified attempting to migrate irregularly were returned home.
At the time, CBP AMO said that Reyes was undergoing “processing” to confirm his identity, secure his health, and determine his fate.
“This incident underscores the extreme danger of attempting illegal maritime migration. The open water is unforgiving, and these journeys can quickly become fatal,” CBP AMO warned.
Reyes was found 16 miles east of Key Biscayne, Florida, on October 12. Subsequent reports following his identification stated that he had left Cojímar, Cuba, on October 8, spending about five days at sea. The distance from Cojímar to Key Biscayne is about 230 miles.
Speaking to Univisión, Reyes was emphatic that he was not a balsero, the term for Cuban “rafters” seeking to escape communism by traveling to America by sea, often in homemade, dangerous rafts. He emphasized that he has a seven-year-old daughter and that the thought of seeing her again was what kept him from going insane at sea.
“I never had the intention of leaving the country, this is just something that happened to me that was very difficult and complicated,” he insisted. “I have life thanks to God because, who survives on a little piece of cork like that?”
Fishing is largely illegal in Cuba. The Communist Party heavily regulates any activity that could result in Cubans accessing food, particularly farming and fishing, so the practice is largely limited to tourist recreational fishermen and Party elites. It is not clear at press time whether Reyes will face persecution from the Cuban state for his journey, either for leaving the country or for attempting to fish.
“I survived thanks to wanting to see my family again, my daughter, those are the things that kept me alive and I always said I wasn’t going to die at sea,” he recalled. “I struggled day and night with 3-meter-long waves.”
Reyes recalled seeing a large shark under his raft, but keeping calm to ensure not to disrupt the balance of the raft and fall. He credited his refusal to panic and his devotion to Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba, for his survival. Our Lady of Charity is a Marian apparition who Cubans believe rescued three men adrift at sea off the shorts of Cuba in 1612 and is seen as a symbol of the tens of thousands of Cubans who have attempted and made the journey to America under communism.
Reyes also told Univisión that he received “impeccable” treatment from his American rescuers and expressed gratitude to the good Samaritans at sea who spotted him and notified the authorities. He also vowed not to go fishing again.
Reyes’s testimony contradicts some family members who spoke to the media after he was identified as the lone balsero but before he had returned to Cuba. Gema Castillo Reyes, a cousin, told Telemundo that he had repeatedly expressed a desire to leave the country and give his daughter a better life, urging American authorities to allow him to stay.
“He did it out of necessity, because of levels of desperation, because of many things that were happening,” Castillo Reyes said. “Nobody takes that risk in what he did and survives to tell the tale. Truly, he deserves to stay [in the United States].”
Castillo Reyes claimed that, while her cousin “told his family he was going to fish, in reality his intentions were something else.” The Telemundo report did not indicate that she provided evidence for this claim.
United States Coast Guard and immigration officials have endeavored to address the large numbers of Cubans attempting to escape the repression, poverty, and suffering of communism by sea for decades. The situation in Cuba has deteriorated significantly this year following the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January, who sustained Cuba’s tourism industry for years by offering free or highly discounted oil to supply the generators running electricity in luxury and tourist areas (the Communist Party long ago stopped maintaining the nation’s power grid, so those without the money for private generators have lived without regular electricity for years). Allies such as China, Russia, and Iran have largely failed to fill the Venezuelan void, while Maduro’s replacement Delcy Rodríguez cut a deal with the United States to sell the nation’s fuel north rather than give it away to the Cuban communists.
