By Ana Mengotti

Miami, Mar 8 (EFE).– DeBary, Florida Mayor Clint Johnson wants to know what it’s like to be a “rafter” and so he plans to fly to Cuba in April but then return on a raft he will build on the island.

“Those people deserve to have their story told,” he told EFE in a telephone interview from DeBary, a city of fewer than 20,000 located west of Daytona Beach.

Johnson, 30, said he will make the dangerous journey across the Florida Strait out of love of adventure but also out of empathy for the Cuban people.

The mayor, who on his website says he will make the raft trip to “share the experience and weigh the pros/cons of a more open relationship with our neighbor 90 miles south,” also said he is against the U.S. embargo on Cuba and in favor of a more open policy toward Havana.

“It’s just 90 miles, but it seems like thousands,” he said.

The perilous raft journey from Cuba to Florida, with unpredictable storms, sharks and other dangers, is also designed to “inspire” others and send the message that you have to enjoy life, Johnson told EFE.

The mayor wants his journey to be as similar as possible to that of the real Cuban rafters who keep risking their lives at sea to sail to the Florida coast in greater numbers than before, despite the process of normalizing relations launched by Washington and Havana in December 2014 which has led to the reopening of embassies in the two capitals.

“Immigration is a hot topic in the United States now. Florida is right in the middle of it with the ‘wet foot, dry foot’ policy that allows Cubans (who) arrive (here illegally) by sea to get refugee status. Little is known of the journey they make and there’s also very little information about what exactly it is that motivates these men, women and children to come here,” Johnson said.

The mayor, who has received permission from U.S. authorities to travel to Cuba as a researcher and journalist, given that he will write a blog, will travel to Havana by plane with his wife.

There, like a real prospective rafter, he will acquire the materials needed to build his raft, probably wood and gasoline cans, and he will set sail from somewhere west of Havana en route for Key West.

His wife will return to the United States by plane and will await his arrival by sea.

If all goes well, he expects to cover the 90 miles from Cuba to Key West in two days, but he says he is prepared for a journey that could last seven or eight days.

Johnson has a sponsor, the Havana Sun tanning lotion company, owned by Ron Rice, who has told the media that he would not spend his money if he were not convinced that the mayor can achieve his objective. EFE