MARATHON, Fla. — The motor died early in Arlen Núñez’s voyage by sea from Cuba to the Florida Keys, leaving him and nearly two dozen other migrants to rely on wind and their own paddling to get to the shores of the United States.
“A commercial boat almost ran us over,” Nuñez, 41, said after the end of more than a week at sea before landing with 22 other migrants on the ocean side of Key Largo at 8:30 a.m.
The group left around New Year’s Day from Matanzas, a province that is a common departure spot for Cuban migrants. But the engine died. The passengers threw the motor overboard, unloaded some of the would-be crew, and continued on, part of an influx of migrants arriving on the chain of islands that make up the Florida Keys.
