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.
It's a very rare 48 Merc Limo not a 49.
Should be good for 10 to 20 grand once the hawl it on shore. looks pretty complete.
My God - that Cuban should have his own show on the Doscovery channel Monster Garage has nothing on that mechanical wizard - and I know it hurts that the Coast Guard sank the classic cars but in sea water exposure probably ruined the metal. With that said - look how clean and unblemished the cars are.
The COast Guard sunk it sadly.
There were few cars built during the war. It was about three years before the passenger car assembly lines got running again. This vehicle would have been one of the early postwar products. I remember the first new car I saw, a 48 Ford coupe with a number of ecstatic soldiers joyriding around post.
Couldn't Agree More!!! i say that is good enuff reason to LET THEM IN!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.