US Looks Into Cuban Coast Guard Shooting

U.S. Looks Into Cuban Coast Guard Shooting
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press WriterThu Apr 6, 7:28 PM ET

The Cuban coast guard shot at three suspected migrant smugglers from the
United States who refused orders to halt their boat as it neared the
island, killing one, official media reported Thursday.

The Communist Party daily Granma said the confrontation occurred
Wednesday near Cuba's southern coast in the western province of Pinar
del Rio.

The coast guard official in charge ordered officers to open fire after
the three-man crew aboard the 40-foot boat failed to stop and instead
launched "violent sudden attacks" on the coast guard vessel, damaging
the craft, the report said.

It said that two men aboard the U.S.-based boat were wounded by gunfire
and taken to a hospital, where one died, the report said.

Cuban authorities said the identity of the dead man was not immediately
known because he did not have any documents and the other two men were
not cooperating.

The two other men carried U.S. passports identifying them as Rafael Mesa
Farinas and Rosendo Salgado Castro. It was unclear which of those two
was wounded or how seriously.

Drew Blakeney, spokesman for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, said
American authorities had confirmed the names of the two surviving men
and that they were U.S. citizens. He said they were seeking consular
access to them in custody. But Blakeney said they had not confirmed the
identity nor the citizenship of the dead man.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that it
would be "deeply disturbing" if the dead man turned out to be an American.

The shooting death of a suspected migrant smuggler by Cuban authorities
was unusual. Most violence during migration attempts has occurred in
confrontations between Cuban authorities and would-be migrants who
hijacked boats or planes.

Cuban authorities blamed the confrontation on U.S. migration policies
that they say encourage its citizens to undertake risky journeys to get
to the United States.

Ninoska Perez Castellon, spokeswoman for the Miami-based Cuban Liberty
Council, blamed the communist government, accusing it of tolerating
illegal migrant smuggling.

"The Cuban government has the authority to let them go in and out," she
said. "For anybody to believe that all those people are coming in and
out without the government getting a cut is ridiculous."

But she also blamed the smugglers, saying they often bring 30 or 40
people on a boat made for six, charging them around $10,000 each.

"That's why you see these terrible accidents," she said. "In the exile
community, people are desperate to bring in their family here."

Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Miami-Based Democracy Movement, said "a
human trafficking mafia" is making money off Cubans' pain.

Sanchez, who went on a hunger strike earlier this year to protest the
treatment of Cuban migrants picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, has also
called for stronger laws against human traffickers and investigations
into the role of Cuban officials in the trade.

"I'm not saying the Cuban government is officially involved but that
some people in the government may be involved," he said.

Sanchez added that the U.S. immigration policy is not what is causing
the human trafficking but what he termed "the dictatorial regime in Cuba."

The passports of two suspected smugglers involved in Wednesday's
confrontation showed they recently visited the Mexican southeastern
state of Quintana Roo, where Cuban authorities believe they had planned
to take a boatload of illegal migrants, who would then cross to the U.S.
by land.

Cuban authorities later temporarily took into custody 39 people they
believe had been scheduled to leave the island on the speedboat: 20 men,
12 women and seven children.

After giving statements to authorities, most were later sent home.
Several, however, remained in custody.

The speedboat was registered to an American man of Cuban origin named
John Roberto, who is nicknamed "Tiburon Azul," or "Blue Shark," the
report said. The boat has traveled to Cuba numerous times on migrant
smuggling trips in the past, many of them through Mexico, the report said.

"The events ... confirm the irresponsible, criminal and aggressive
character of United States policy toward Cuba, especially the deliberate
use of the theme of migration against the revolution," Granma said in
the front page report.

It went on to criticize as "cynical" the Cuban Adjustment Act, a 1966
law that grants U.S. residency to most Cubans one year after reaching
American soil. That privilege does not apply to apply to immigrants from
most other nations.

Under current American policy, most would-be Cuban migrants the U.S.
Coast Guard picks up at sea are returned to the island, but most who
reach American soil are allowed to stay.

Mexico is among several routes migrant smugglers use to get Cuban
migrants into the United States, and Quintana Roo, home to the Caribbean
resorts of Cancun, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, has become an increasingly
popular transshipment point.

From there, the migrants travel to the U.S. border with Mexico, where
they identify themselves as Cubans to American officials and are often
allowed to stay.

Associated Press reporter Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to this
report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_smugglers_shot_4