HAVANA/MEXICO CITY, March 27 (Reuters) – Two sailboats that went missing from a convoy transporting humanitarian aid from Mexico to Cuba arrived safely in Cuba, AFP reported on Friday citing the U.S. Coast Guard.
A spokesperson for the convoy said he could not yet reach the U.S. Coast Guard to verify the information.
“It’s not confirmed,” spokesperson James Schneider told Reuters.
The two boats were part of a broader volunteer grassroots aid effort seeking to deliver food, medicine, baby formula and other supplies to energy-strapped Cuba, which has been suffering prolonged power outages and a deepening economic crisis after the U.S. tightened an embargo on oil and other goods.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Mexico’s navy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Cuban state-run news program at 1 p.m. local time repeated President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s concern over the boats, citing them as still missing.
In a press conference earlier on Friday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the search for the boats was ongoing, and that nine people had been on board one of the boats.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Raul Cortes and Sarah Morland; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)
