Royal Caribbean ship rescues 23 Cuban migrants
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – A cruise ship departing from Jamaica has rescued 23 Cuban migrants after someone aboard spotted their small boat.
A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. says officials on the Oasis of the Seas brought the Cubans aboard and provided them with food, water and medical treatment after alerting the U.S. Coast Guard.
Cynthia Martinez says the Cubans were turned over to Mexican authorities when the ship arrived in Cozumel on Thursday.
The regional Mexican newspaper Por Esto reports Friday that the Cubans told journalists in Cozumel they were from the areas of Manzanillo and Bayamo and that they had set to sea in a makeshift boat three weeks ago trying to reach Honduras.
Islanders mark Good Friday as official holiday
HAVANA (AP) – Good Friday was an official holiday in Cuba for the first time in a half century, but few Catholics on the island seemed to be using the day off to attend Mass.
Cuba’s Communist government declared the holiday to honor a request that Pope Benedict XVI made during last week’s visit. But journalists saw only a few more worshippers than usual were noted inside Havana’s Catholic churches on Friday.
Authorities were also allowing Cardinal Jaime Ortega’s to transmit a Good Friday message on state television.
Good Friday is the day Catholics commemorate the death of Christ, but it is not an official holiday in the United States, most of Europe or even Mexico, the most Catholic of the world’s Spanish-speaking countries.
Cuba removed references to atheism from its constitution in the 1990s, and relations have since warmed with the church. Still, less than 10 percent of islanders are practicing Catholics. The country has large numbers of adherents to Santeria and evangelical Christianity.
