Pablo Mantilla Masa, a young Cuban who arrived on a windsurf board in the United States, was released yesterday by immigration authorities after spending 18 days in a detention center.
Mantilla Masa, 33, is not the first Cuban citizen to leave the island on a windsurf board so far this year. Last March, Elián López Cabrera, 48 years old, also managed to reach the United States mounted on the same sports equipment.
Diving instructor, López Cabrera jumped into the sea despite facing health problems. The next day he was located in it in the waters near Marathon Cay, where he was rescued from the brink of collapse and given medical attention.
«Before coming here, a week before, I always watched Internet programs, about the winds. I was always waiting for a [viento] Southeast, the only one that can take you to the Florida Keys,” Mantilla Masa told a canal local TV after being released.
Mantilla Masa left Varadero on Monday May 22 at 9:00 am and arrived in Key West in the afternoon of the same day. He was transferred to a detention center in Broward after arriving on the shores of the Key. The crossing lasted six hours and 33 minutes.
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