Fifty-six persons who were lost at sea after trying to reach Puerto Rico on a boat 18 days ago (see DR1 Daily News 18 October 2005) have been officially declared missing by the authorities after intensive sea and air searches yielded no results, according to the Civil Defense Director in Nagua, Minerva Santos. El Caribe reports that the General Director of Civil Defense, General Luis Luna Paulino, reported that they had received information regarding the possibility that the group was somewhere in Cuba. His department has alerted the Ministry of Foreign Relations, state intelligence institutions, and Dominican Consul in Miami, in an effort to confirm the information.