Missing aid boats bound for Cuba have been located, Mexican authorities say
By Uriel Blanco, Moriah Thomas, CNN
Mexico City (CNN) — Two Mexican sailboats, the “Friendship” and “Tigermoth,” that disappeared at sea while delivering humanitarian aid to Cuba on Thursday have safely docked at Havana’s port, Mexico’s navy said Saturday.
The yachts were located 80 nautical miles from Havana using Mexican naval aircraft, and communication was being maintained with the vessels via radio, according to an update from the Secretariat of the Mexican Navy (SEMAR).
The sailboats were reported missing on Thursday, after they lost communication with Mexican authorities, prompting a search and rescue operation.
The vessels are part of the Nuestra América convoy, Spanish for Our America, an international aid convoy made up of groups and individuals, largely from Latin America and Europe, delivering aid to Cuba.
“We are delighted to arrive to Havana today and complete our mission to deliver material aid to the Cuban people,” Adnaan Stumo, coordinator of the Nuestra América convoy, said in a statement provided to CNN.
“We thank the Mexican Navy for their generous support in ensuring our safety and well being,” Stumo said. “We arrive with a simple but powerful message: solidarity with the Cuban people doesn’t stop at borders. It crosses oceans.”
These boats set sail from Isla Mujeres in the Mexican Caribbean, on Saturday, March 21, and were expected to arrive “between the night of Friday, March 27 and noon on Saturday, March 28,” according to the convoy.
This initiative is inspired by the Sumud Global Flotilla which attempted to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza in 2025.
“We are an international coalition of people and organizations dedicated to
delivering critical humanitarian aid to the Cuban people,” the convoy says on their website.
The aid comes as Cuba has taken a severe economic hit since the US effectively blocked its oil supply earlier this year, depriving its aging electricity network of its main source of fuel.
Last Sunday, the island was plunged into its second nationwide blackout in less than a week, leaving more than 10 million people without power after the electrical grid suffered “a total disconnection.”
A first group of vessels from the convoy arrived in Cuba on March 18 with “loads of aid,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said at the time.
On Tuesday, March 24, the convoy’s flagship arrived in Havana after four days at sea, carrying 14 tons of food and medicine, 73 solar panels and a dozen bicycles. An earlier leg of the aid initiative, also brought supplies to the island via plane.
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CNN’s Sol Amaya and Max Saltman contributed reporting.
