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2004/02/09 00:11 |
Cubans Sailing to U.S. in Car Caught by Coast Guard
Wed Feb 4,11:46 PM ET
By Frances Kerry
MIAMI (Reuters) - A group of Cubans who tried to sail to the United
States in a
1959 Buick car fashioned into a boat were intercepted at sea by the U.S.
Coast Guard
(news - web sites), relatives in Cuba and Cuban exiles said on
Wednesday.
For four of the 11 people on board, it was not the first
thwarted attempt to leave the communist island in a
bizarrely converted vintage vehicle.
They had already tried last July to reach Florida in a
vessel made from a 1951 Chevy truck, only to be
picked up by the Coast Guard and sent home.
The Coast Guard intercepted the bright green
Buick-boat on Tuesday during its journey over the
90-mile stretch between Cuba and Florida, exile groups
said.
In Miami, the U.S. Coast Guard would not discuss the
incident, saying agency policy was not to comment on
migrant interdiction cases while they were in process.
There was no word on whether the group had been
taken aboard a Coast Guard vessel or had tried to sail
on once they were spotted by the Coast Guard. If
picked up, they would likely be sent home, unless they
could make a case for political asylum.
In Cuba, relatives of the six adults and five children --
aged between 4 and 15 -- on the Buick appealed to
U.S. authorities not to send them home.
Usually, Cubans caught at sea are repatriated, unless they can prove
they have
grounds for political asylum. Washington's policy is to monitor
repatriated migrants to
make sure they are not punished for having tried to leave.
Those Cuban migrants who manage to make it to U.S. shore are generally
allowed to
stay.
Relatives said the group was led by Luis Grass, who was one of the 12 Cubans
repatriated last July after the truck crossing attempt failed, and was
seeking a visa for
the United States as a political refugee.
SEAWORTHY BUICK
Their vessel, seen on images broadcast by Miami television stations,
looked like one of
the many stately 1950s American cars that still cruise the streets of
Havana and other
Cuba cities -- except that it was surrounded by ocean.
The group drove into the sea from a beach 20 miles east of Havana after
dark on
Monday.
"They sealed the doors and added a double bottom, steel plates for a bow
and a
propeller," said Eduardo Perez, cousin of Luis Grass, at his home in the Havana
suburb of Diezmero.
He said it cost $4,000 to make the Buick, powered by its original V8
engine, seaworthy
and pay for cellular phones used to help the look-out for police on the
drive to the
beach.
Grass, 35, his wife Isora and 4-year-old son, and Marcial Basalta, were
aboard last
July's attempt in a truck made seaworthy with 55-gallon drums strapped
to the sides.
This time Basalta took his wife and two children with him in the Buick
owned by a friend
called Rafael, who left with his wife and their two sons.
The relatives in Havana called on U.S. authorities not to repatriate
the occupants of the Buick, saying they would be punished by the
Cuban government for trying a second time.
"The United States should have a little bit of compassion and value
the determination of these people," Perez said. "They are clean
people. All they want to do is live and work."
"On ingenuity alone, they should be allowed to stay," said Joe
Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National
Foundation, a leading exile group.
Many in Miami's large exile population were outraged last July when
U.S. authorities repatriated the 12 occupants of the truck, and sank
the vessel, saying it was unseaworthy and if it were preserved might
encourage copycat efforts.
(Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana)
photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=3&u=/nm/20040205/wl_nm/cuba_car_dc
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