SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard rescued at least 40 people from the open sea Monday after a boat overturned near Mona Island, a small, uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico.
Two people died in the incident, while survivors told authorities that roughly 60 passengers had been aboard the vessel, the Coast Guard said.
Search-and-rescue operations continued into Monday evening.
The survivors had spent more than 12 hours in the water when a passing vessel spotted them near Mona Island shortly after midday Monday and alerted authorities. Four people were rescued at that point.
According to the Coast Guard, the improvised boat overturned late Sunday after a confrontation on board. People were seriously wounded with a machete, prompting passengers to leap into the water without life jackets.
Authorities had not determined the passengers’ nationalities or countries of origin. A Coast Guard spokesperson said she did not yet have that information.
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For years, people escaping poverty and violence have attempted the dangerous journey from Hispaniola — the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic — toward Puerto Rico and nearby Caribbean islands across the treacherous Mona Passage.
Those voyages often take place aboard makeshift boats vulnerable to rough seas and capsizing. Monday’s incident was the latest deadly crossing in the region.
In June 2022, the bodies of 11 Haitian women and girls were buried in Puerto Rico after an overloaded vessel carrying them overturned in open waters northwest of the U.S. territory.
Authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands detained a makeshift boat carrying 60 Haitian migrants last week. In June, another 240 Haitian migrants were detained near the island chain.
Haiti’s worsening gang crisis has forced a record 1.5 million people from their homes. U.N. figures show that more than 3,050 people were killed in the country between January and June.
Armed groups now control an estimated 70% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as large areas of Haiti’s central region and other parts of the country.
