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Death toll rises after boat accident near DomRep

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The Associated Press Updated 7:11 PM Tuesday, February 7, 2012

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The number of victims who died after a boat overloaded with migrants capsized this weekend near the Dominican Republic has risen to 21, officials said Tuesday.

More than 30 others remain missing, said Jeffrey Pimentel, the fire chief at Sabana del Mar, a town northeast of Santo Domingo.

"We are looking only for cadavers," he said. "It is impossible that more people survived."

He said authorities were perplexed that more bodies had not surfaced since Saturday's accident, when a boat carrying some 70 people capsized after leaving the Dominican Republic for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Thirteen people survived, but Pimentel said it was possible that others swam to shore and hid from authorities to avoid being interrogated.

Luis Castro, intelligence director of the Dominican Republic's navy, said officials detained one survivor after another passenger identified him as one of the organizers of the trip.

No one has been charged.

Thousands of poor Dominicans, along with many Haitian and Cuban migrants, try to cross the treacherous 160-mile (260-kilometer) Mona Passage that separates Puerto Rico from Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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February 08, 2012 12:08 AM EST

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