Posted on 06/08/2005 6:15:58 PM PDT by Former Fetus
HAVANA (Reuters) - A group of Cubans making the third bid in two years to reach the United States in a vintage American car converted into a boat were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard, relatives said on Wednesday.
In their impoverished Havana neighborhood, tearful mothers implored U.S. authorities to allow the emigres to stay in the United States, saying they would be jailed if returned to Communist-run Cuba.
Thirteen Cubans, including six children, sailed across the Florida Straits in a 1949 Mercury with an built-on prow and a taxi sign on the roof. They were intercepted about 20 miles off Key West on the southern tip of Florida on Tuesday morning, Miami television station NBC 6 reported.
The group set off on Monday night from a beach east of Havana in the converted car owned by Rafael Diaz, who was making his third attempt to leave Cuba in a makeshift amphibious craft.
Miami television images showed them aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. A Coast Guard spokesman said he could not provide details on the incident until the fate of the migrants was resolved.
"He's my only son. He is all I have got," said Diaz's mother Josefina Rey, 79. "But at least in the United States he can remake his life. Here they will not leave him in peace."
"I implore the U.S. government that they be allowed to stay. If they are returned they will be refugees for ever, there will be reprisals," said Efigenia Bello, whose daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, aged 3 and 4, where on the vessel.
She said her daughter Yerani was a doctor and Cuba would not allow her to emigrate legally to the United States.
Generally, Cubans intercepted on the 90-mile crossing to Florida are sent back to the island, while those who make it to U.S. soil are allowed to stay. Others are taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay and later allowed to go to a third country from where they can make it to the United States.
RISK OF CAPSIZING
A Coast Guard official in Key West said Cubans were setting out in unseaworthy vessels that could easily capsize.
"People are taking huge risks. They're coming across in unseaworthy vessels," the Coast Guard commander in Key West, Capt. Phil Heyl, said.
"That vessel, could, at any moment, have rolled over and caused a huge tragedy," he said of the latest attempt to reach Florida in a converted vintage American vehicle.
But in Diezmero, one neighborhood over from where writer Ernest Hemingway lived for 20 years, residents have no doubt the risks are worth taking. Their cinder-block and wooden houses are on streets that smell of sewers and uncollected garbage, and frequent power outages make the tropical heat hard to bear.
"They do well to leave. Everyone wants to go," said neighbor Jersi Antonio. "When there is running water, there is no electricity, and when there is electricity, there is no water."
Diezmero residents caught the public eye two years ago when they sought to motor over to Florida in a 1951 flatbed Chevy truck kept afloat with oil drums and fitted with a propeller. They were intercepted and returned to Cuba.
According to Coast Guard statistics, some 1,406 Cubans have been intercepted illegally crossing the Florida Straits since October. Most are ferried over in smugglers' vessels.
"If Teddy had been driving this he would be President today."
Superb!"Ah..that was my only mistake. And I am deeply sorry about it [not driving a waterproof vehicle.]"
No welfare for them.
When they succeed - and I did say "when" - they have a guaranteed book deal.
Maybe even a TV movie.
I'd love to read/see their story and I'll bet a lot of other freepers would too.
D
What? And leave the Worker's Paradise?
Heck, selling the classic car they floated over in would net them a nice big nest egg.
"free edumacation"
And Barbara Walters says the education is "very good." Perhaps they are perplexed that the best job a well-educated woman can get is prostitute.
No kidding! - Tells you what it is that they are fleeing.
A problem was likely created by the adventure. They are going to have to check the Mercury for traces of tuna.
Here's one man who finally did take that route.
They tried sailing a Chevy, then they gave the Buick a go
March 25, 2005
Luis Grass, 30, whose two previous attempts to make the voyage in propeller-driven vintage cars ended in glorious, headline-grabbing failure, has finally arrived in the United States with his family after his third try.This time he came overland — an epic, 24-day, 1,140-mile journey. "Trying to cross the Florida Straits on my floating cars was easier, I can tell you that," a beaming Señor Grass said in Miami at the end of a journey that took him, his wife and five-year-old son through snake- infested forests and out of sight of hostile border guards in six countries.
Señor Grass and his long- suffering wife, Isora, 27 — he thanked her for going along with his "crazy schemes" — carried their son Angel Luis from San José, Costa Rica, where their journey began on February 16, through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, making their way on foot, by hitchhiking, and in taxis and buses, to the US.
SNIP ... continued here.
bump
And likely will have their own tv show on the Doityourself network. Look out Jesse James and Monster Garage.
Classic!
Anybody escaping communism to come here should get a free pass, in my book.
Good one!
LOL!
Doug, I concluded long ago that your mind works on 220, not on 110.
Socialism is such a paradise, why would anyone want to leave it?
About 1962 as I recall; from Mad Magazine.
No no no. From a 1970 National Lampoon. Fake ad after Chappaquidick, showed the VW floating off the ferry landing, with the caption " If Ted Kennedy drove one he'd be president." With the VW logo. VW went nuts.
I shouldn't have stuck the fork into the socket as a kid. :)
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