Mexico’s navy searches for 2 Cuba-bound aid boats that are missing

The Mexican navy said on Thursday that it was searching for two boats transporting humanitarian aid for Cuba with nine crew of different nationalities on board.

The vessels set sail last Friday from Isla Mujeres in Mexico’s southeastern state of Quintana Roo and were due to arrive in Havana on Tuesday or Wednesday this week, the navy said in a statement.

It said that there had been neither “communication nor confirmation of their arrival” in Cuba and that it has alerted naval commanders in the region and its search and rescue stations.

Since last week, activists from several countries have left Mexican ports on vessels loaded with food and other supplies for the communist-led island, which faces a humanitarian crisis in the face of a US-imposed fuel embargo.

The navy did not specify the identities or nationalities of the crew members on the missing boats but said it was maintaining communication with rescue agencies in Poland, France, Cuba and the United States.

The navy is also in contact “with the diplomatic missions of the crew members’ countries of origin” to cooperate and exchange information in real time, the statement said.