Cuba breaks up people smuggling attempt; 1 dead
Thu Apr 6, 2006 10:51 AM ET
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban coast guards opened fire on smugglers in a
U.S.-registered speedboat, killing one smuggler and arresting 39 people
who were waiting to slip out of the country, Granma newspaper said on
Thursday.
Two smugglers also were wounded when they refused to stop their 40-foot
launch and came under fire from a Cuban coast guard patrol boat.
The smuggler's boat, which is owned by a Cuban-American based in
Florida, was intercepted on Wednesday morning off the south coast of the
western province of Pinar del Rio, Granma said.
The newspaper identified the owner of the speedboat as John Roberto,
known as Blue Shark, of Florida and said the smugglers had planned to
ferry the Cubans to Mexico.
Two Cuban-Americans named Rafael Mesa Farinas and Rosendo Salgado Castro
were wounded. A third man who was not immediately identified died later
in hospital, the ruling Communist Party newspaper said.
Police arrested 39 people, including 12 women and seven children, in
connection with the attempt to leave Cuba illegally, Granma said. The
women and children were later taken to their homes, it said.
Hundreds of Cubans leave their country every year by sea, increasingly
paying smugglers about $8,000 to take them across the Florida Straits to
the United States.
Some smugglers have turned their operations to Mexico and Central
America to avoid interception by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Cuba blames the U.S. government for encouraging illegal emigration from
the island by granting almost automatic residence to Cubans who make it
across to dry land in the United States.
Under Washington's controversial "dry-foot, wet-foot" policy adopted
after a mass exodus of Cubans in 1994, boat people intercepted at sea
are returned to Cuba.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-04-06T145136Z_01_N06273259_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-SMUGGLERS.xml&archived=False
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