Free Republic

HAVANA (Reuters) - Twelve Cubans who tried to sail to Florida in a 1951 Chevy truck ingeniously converted into an amphibious craft are making a second attempt to get to the United States, this time as political refugees. The group, repatriated to communist-run Cuba by the U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) 10 days ago, applied on Wednesday for political asylum at the U.S. Interest Section in Havana. "This is our last hope. We want to go. We love our country very much, but there is no future here," said Michael Lau Valdez, 25. The nine men, two women...

Cuban migrants try to reach the US coast in Florida in a 1951 Chevrolet truck, converted into a marine vessel with air-filled drums for flotation and a propeller driven off the driveshaft. Photo: Reuters A group of 11 Cubans, who tried to flee to the United States by sea in a 1951 Chevrolet truck, have expressed a sense of loss that they were returned home while their beloved truck lies at the bottom of the ocean. The 11, plus a young boy, were intercepted by the US Coast Guard on Thursday, 65 kilometres off the US coast as they...

U.S. Coast Guard pulls over Chevy truck in Straits of Florida 12 Cubans aboard ═ National Post news services Friday, July 25, 2003 WASHINGTON - The crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter could not believe their eyes. Chugging along at a steady 13 kilometres per hour in the Straits of Florida was a bright-green 1951 Chevrolet truck with 12 Cuban migrants aboard. The ingenious craft was kept afloat by 12 250-litre drums strapped to its sides. The wheels were still in place and the engine was running, turning a propeller attached to the drive shaft. There was even...

KEY WEST - Over the past four decades, Cubans desperate to reach the United States have crossed the perilous Florida Straits in just about anything that floats: Surfboards. Inner tubes. Homemade rafts.But it's hard to top the latest entrant in the maritime scramble: A 1951 Chevy flatbed truck.The green truck, tires still on, was mounted on a pontoon made of 55-gallon drums.The makeshift vessel even sported a propeller, attached to the truck's driveshaft, and was cruising along at a leisurely eight miles an hour, driver behind the wheel, when it was spotted by a U.S. government plane 40 miles south...

First they tried sailing to freedom in a retrofitted 1951 Chevy. Then it was a floating '59 Chevy pickup truck. Finally, the family of a Cuban migrant who masterminded the escapes in vintage trucks has found freedom. They arrived Wednesday in Costa Rica -- not in a vintage Chevy -- but on a flight paid for by the U.S. government. Luis Grass, 30, a master mechanic dubbed a ''truckonaut'' for his conversions of the classic vehicles into seaworthy escape vessels, was among the 20 migrants taken from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay to Costa Rica on Wednesday. He...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Three Cuban migrants who tried to sail to Florida in a vintage U.S. truck and a car converted into boats won a chance on Wednesday to pursue their request for political asylum in the United States, a Cuban exile group said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to send the trio to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to await a review of their asylum requests, according to the Cuban exile group, which went to court seeking to prevent their repatriation to Cuba. The trio -- Luis Grass, his wife Isora and their 4-year-old...

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge ordered on Friday that three of a group of 11 Cubans who tried to sail to Florida in a boat made from an old Buick car not be sent home at least until Monday afternoon. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno was responding to a motion filed in court by a Cuban American exile group seeking an injunction to stop the group from being repatriated. The Cubans are currently being held on a Coast Guard cutter at sea after being stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Florida Straits on Tuesday as they...

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...

A group of Cubans sails toward the Florida Straits on a modified 1959 Buick Tuesday February 3, 2004. The pilots were the same two men who tried to sail a converter 1951 Chevy flatbed truck to the U.S. last year. Nine other Cubans, including wives and children, were intercepted by the U.S Coast Guard on Tuesday Feb. 3, 2004. (AP Photo/CBS4, HO)

MIAMI (AP) - Two Cubans who tried to sail to Florida in a truck converted to a pontoon boat last year are making another attempt, this time piloting a seagoing 1950s-era Buick with nine other people, including five children, relatives said. Marciel Basanta Lopez and Luis Gras Rodriguez, who were sent back to Cuba in July after they failed to reach Florida in a converted 1951 Chevy pickup, were allegedly at the helm of the newest vehicle-boat conversion. The Coast Guard refused on Wednesday to confirm the status of the tailfinned car or the origin of photos of it in...

Cubans made Chevy a cradle for their hopes BY TERE FIGUERAStfigueras@herald.com 7/27/2003 They were family, friends and neighbors who lived on the same block just outside Havana. For weeks, they labored on a daring secret plan to flee to the United States.But even before they set off, suspicious Cuban police got wind of their plan. The officers searched the homes of the 12 -- nine men, two women and a child -- looking for oars, a boat, sails, anything that would finger the group as would-be rafters. They found nothing.They never thought to look at the truck.''It was right there...

Rafters wash up on SoBe, then belly up to the barThu May 29, 2003 BY RICHARD BRAND, rbrand@herald.com The Clevelander Hotel bar -- famous for hosting wild bachelor parties and spring break wet T-shirt fiestas -- was the site of an unusual gathering this week: the landing of five Cuban migrants on neon-lit Ocean Drive. After arriving on shore late Tuesday, the men walked across the sand and made the packed South Beach bar their first stop in South Florida. "They asked the night manager for asylum," said Ryan Hammons, a supervisor. Instead, they got beers, T-shirts and a round...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Incident May Reignite Controversy Over Immigration Policy KEY WEST, Fla. -- An incident in the Florida Keys Tuesday afternoon is already reminding some people of the Elian Gonzalez controversy. The Coast Guard said that five Cuban refugees made it to shore. But a child left behind on the boat the refugees arrived on may become the focus of a new immigration controversy. According to Coast Guard members, a "good Samaritan" came across a 21-foot boat that had run out of gas just off Key West. Those towing the boat notified the...