Exile Activist Says Cubans in Floating Buick are Sent Back to Cuba, Car Sunk

Miami Herald ^ | 2-04-04 | LUISA YANEZ and TERE FIGUERAS

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Exile Activist Says Cubans in Floating Buick are Sent Back to Cuba, Car Sunk

BY LUISA YANEZ and TERE FIGUERAS lyanez@herald.com/ Feb 4,'04

The '59 Buick converted into a boat and headed to Florida Keys with 11 Cuban migrants onboard has been sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard and those onboard will be taken back to Cuba, according to an exile activist in Key West.

The U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday morning refused to comment on the fate of the car, citing a policy not to comment on an ``ongoing mission.''

But Arturo Cobo, who ran the Cuban rafter house in Key West in the 1990s, said he tried to intervene on behalf of the Cubans and was told by government sources that it was too late.

''My sources tell me that like the truck seven months ago, this car has also been sunk by the Coast Guard and the people onboard will be repatriated back to the island,'' said Cobo.

A Coast Guard source confirmed the situation had ended but would not say what was done with the people or their floating car.

Under U.S. immigration policy, Cubans who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those who are stopped interdicted at sea are usually sent back.

When another group made a similar attempt in July to cross the Straits in a 1951 Chevy flatbed truck, their floating truck was sunk by the Coast Guard and the people were repatriated.

Relatives said there were six adults and five children in the Buick, including Marciel Basanta López and Luis Gras Rodríguez -- two of the people who fled Cuba in the truck in July -- and their wives and children. They said the group left Cuba around 8 p.m. Monday.

They were in a 1959 tailfinned Buick that appeared to be on some sort of floating platform, its seafoam green nose fitted into a boat hull. The Buick is said to have sailed with 10 miles of Marathon early Wednesday.

Cobo had dubbed the Cubans floating on the vehicle ''carronautas'' or car astronauts. He is planning to open a museum of memorabilia of items Cubans have used to escape from island and hoped the green car used by the group could be a show piece.

[nuconvert]

LOL !!

Are you listening to it now?

[BobS]

In my Sennheiser headphones! I will be deaf when this thread ends!

[nuconvert]

LOL !!!!

EH??? WHAT???

[sheik yerbouty]

It looks like the 1960 Le Sabre I had in high school1 Same color too!

[BobS]

It's as loud as it can get. I converted 1-2k of MP3s to listenable quality with the Pro-Sound software Sound Forge with the Waves and Steinberg plug-ins and still do. I have 12GB of MP3 on my SCSI320 HD. You can't tell the difference.

[Nick Danger]

How can a Buick float? Don't they have little holes in the sides?

[Hardastarboard]

DAMN whoever is sinking these classic cars. This is the second one. I'm forming an independent political party to stop this debacle! No more sinking floating classic cars from Cuba!

[BobS]

"How can a Buick float? Don't they have little holes in the sides?"

You're onto something. Those folks are the type of creative people we should welcome with a parade. Or better!

[Nick Danger]

Cue the "Lowrider" music...

Believe it or not, the guy who did this is in Sweden. With this, he would win the Friday night parade on El Cajon Boulevard.

[nuconvert]

You must have been a real chick magnet. LOL

[daviddennis]

Gotta love that Cuban ingenuity.

Is there anything that can be done to help them?

D

[knarf]

"DAMN whoever is sinking these classic cars."

My guess is, the Coast Guardsmen are too young to really appreciate a classic automobile and just not hip enough to dig what these Cubans are doing to get to freedom.

Another one of my guesses is that the Cubans are figuring that the Americans would not rip into a classic icon like a '59 Buick.

Sad.

The PT Cruiser comes off the line raked and chopped and all anyone can say is. "Yabut it's just a body on a Neon frame"

So freepin' what?!

If The Gravedigger logo wasn't so heavily patented ....

[nuconvert]

I don't know. You'd think there would be a list of businesses wanting to help. Maybe there are.

[The Bronze Titan]

Mexico is a free country, and we say "come in, don't worry we'll let you stay".

Cuba is a gulag prison, and we say "don't you dare try to come over, 'cause if we catch you, we'll send you back to your prison hole!"

[FITZ]

If the Mexicans can get a free pass, then daring souls like this certainly can!

They need to say "somos mexicanos" --- then they can stay.

[nuconvert]

Here's a quote from an earlier article...........

"When you are so sure of what you have to do you cannot be afraid."

"My cousin isn't crazy. He wants to be free," Lopez told the newspaper. "That's how crazy he is."

That Says it ALL.

[Porterville]

Is that what we say?? Really??? Or are you just being a drama queen??

[nuconvert]

I think it was sarcasm

[dennisw]

All Cubans who use such automobile/boats should be allowed into the United States. These guys were with 10 miles of US soil.

[shiva]

Those poor guys had the ingenuity and determination to try this twice, just to be sent back to Cuba!

Yeah,that's terrible. I wonder why they want to come here? Don't they know America is evil? <sarcasm