Onlookers scratched their heads at a peculiar scene just off the coast of Havana on Monday — Cuba’s coast guard intercepted nearly a dozen passengers from a scrappy blue handmade raft with an American flag painted along the bow. Handmade rafts are hardly out of the ordinary in Cuba, where innumerable vessels set off in attempts to reach Florida’s shores. Growing waves of migrants have abandoned the Caribbean island in the past year by land, air and sea, an exodus fueled by a complex mix of deepening and compounding crises in Cuba. Many such migrants – often referred to as balseros – usually set off in rafts from remote parts of the island, shrouded by darkness to avoid being intercepted.
