MIAMI — A Cuban diving instructor was recently rescued near Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, after sailing from Cuba on a windsurfing board. If the attempt seems desperate, it is not exceptional:
Driven by a government crackdown on dissent, widespread poverty and a lack of opportunities, young Cubans are leaving the island in a new exodus by land and sea that has already eclipsed the balsero crisis of 1994, when more than 35,000 Cubans took to the sea in makeshift rafts.
In the five months between October and the end of February, 47,000 Cubans arrived at the Mexico-U.S. border, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.
