Posted on 04/02/2003 10:56:18 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
MIAMI (AFP) - US negotiators headed toward a Cuban ferry drifting in international waters after a group of people seized the boat in Havana forcing the crew to head toward Florida, officials said.
The incident came barely a day after a Cuban airliner was hijacked to Florida.
"We will send negotiators, they are on their way," said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orijuela said in Miami, adding that the boat was drifting in international waters in the Florida Straits between Cuba and the United States.
The father of one of the crew members said the boat was seized around 1:00 am (0500 GMT) as it was ferrying passengers between various neighborhoods along the Havana bay.
"Fifteen or 16 people boarded the boat and forced the crew to head to the open seas," Gilberto Vargas, he told AFP.
"Most likely they asked to go to Miami," 350 kilometers (220 miles) away, he said, speaking at the docks, before he was escorted to a police car.
On Tuesday, a man saying he was carrying two hand grenades forced a Cuban airliner to take him to Florida.
The alleged hijacker was arrested after the Soviet-made Antonov-24 landed in Key West, Florida, with 31 passengers and crew aboard.
The plane, which initially had 46 people on board, was on a short domestic flight from the Isle of Youth to Havana late Monday when the hijacker ordered the crew to head to Miami.
The Cubana de Aviacion plane spent about 12 tense hours on the tarmac in Havana, where a group of passengers jumped out a rear window after the ageing aircraft was refueled Tuesday morning
Another Cuban airliner with 33 people aboard was hijacked to Florida on March 19.
Eleven of the passengers sought political asylum in the United States; the rest returned to Cuba.
A US judge later ruled that the six hijackers could be released on a 25,000 dollar bond pending trial, but the decision is being appealed.
Cuba has been staunchly critical of the US policy of granting asylum and US residence to any Cuban who manages to set foot on US soil -- such as the 11 passengers on the March 19 flight. Those intercepted on the high seas are returned to the communist-ruled island.
This is cruel. Whats the point in making these people suffer Castros cruelty? I guess all gov'ts are cruel. They only differ in degree.
It would be nice if Castro would just die. So much suffering just to satisfy the megalomania of one man.
I hope you never have to choose between a wasted life of misery and slavery or using any means available to escape. Speaking for myself, I would choose anything over slavery.
Including endangering the lives of other people? Yesterday, there were women and children forced to jump from the back of a plane onto the runway in Havana. The two planes hijacked during the past two weeks weren't prepared to fly to Florida, and this ferry isn't exactly an ocean-going vessel. Those who hijacked the planes are now in prison, by the way.
Will the next hijacker be a hero when people who have no choice in the matter die?
No one died. Don't be such a drama queen.
Hard decisions have to be made when no easy choice is available. Cubans have difficult choices to make and while I might not elect to hijack a plane or boat in order to reach freedom, I find it hard to condemn others for doing so.
The drive to live free is strong in some. Those with a totaltarian bent have a hard time understanding it. Incidently it those who meakly follow authority which make totalitarian governments possible.
The Miami Herald is reporting rough seas, five-foot waves, the ferry out of fuel and adrift 30 miles from the Cuban coast. The Sun-Sentinel is reporting 8-foot swells in the Florida straits. Both estimate 50 people on board. Havana is reporting that the hijackers are threatening to throw people overboard, but we can take that with a large grain of salt, I hope.
Consider this a "drama queen" update....
Accusations that the detainees engaged in treason and are mercenaries "only show the repressive nature of the Castro regime and its fear of any sign of opposition to its ironclad rule," Roberto Zimmerman, spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Latin America bureau, said in Washington on Wednesday. The Cubans "are being tried for exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association," said Zimmerman.
The roundup followed several years of relative government tolerance for dissidents. During that time, the opposition grew stronger, more organized and more daring. Those arrested included independent journalists, directors of non-governmental libraries, members of opposition political parties and volunteers for the Varela Project, a pro-democracy petition drive.***
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