Passenger claims boaters weren't smugglers and actually rescued 29 Cubans

Passenger claims boaters weren't smugglers and actually rescued 29 Cubans

By Madeline Baró Diaz
Miami Bureau
Posted July 11 2006

MIAMI -- Two of the men accused in a fatal alleged smuggling attempt
actually rescued the Cubans found aboard their speedboat, a passenger on
the ill-fated trip said Monday.

Yuliet Escandón, 22, said she, her husband and 30 others left from
Havana and set sail on a homemade raft Saturday. After they ran into
trouble, two men on a speedboat happened by and picked them up, she said
during a news conference at the Miami headquarters of the Cuban activist
group Democracy Movement.

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It was the rafters who encouraged their rescuers to outrun the U.S.
Coast Guard vessels that tried to stop them Saturday south of Key West,
she said.

"We told them not to stop, that we had freedom right there in front of
us," said Escandón, who is five months pregnant and was brought ashore
because she was suffering from abdominal pains. Most of the others in
the group remained aboard a Coast Guard cutter on Monday.

A Coast Guard crew member shot and disabled the speedboat's engine, and
when the Coast Guard crewmen boarded the boat they found Anai Machado
Gonzalez, 24, badly injured. She died from head trauma by the time she
arrived in the Florida Keys for medical treatment.

Despite Escandón's statement, three men -- including her husband, Amil
Gonzalez Rodriguez, identified as Yamil in court papers -- have been
charged with taking part in a smuggling operation that resulted in a
death. On Monday, the three made their first appearance in Key West
federal court and will have pretrial hearings on Friday or Monday if
they have not obtained attorneys by Thursday.

The others were identified as Rolando Gonzalez Delgado and Heinrich
Castillo Diaz.

Escandón seemed to be unaware of the charges against her husband. She
thanked U.S. officials for bringing him to the United States but said
she did not know why he had not been released like she had.

U.S. Magistrate Lurana Snow ordered the Coast Guard not to repatriate
any of the 29 people still on board the cutter until the accused
smugglers hire attorneys.

Under U.S. immigration policy, Cubans intercepted at sea are interviewed
by immigration agents and repatriated if they do not demonstrate a
credible fear of persecution if returned to Cuba. Most are repatriated.

According to an affidavit by R. Craig Karch II, a special agent with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Coast Guard crews responding to the
scene saw the three accused men at the center console of the 36-foot
boat and also saw Gonzalez Rodriguez waving off the Coast Guard and
ordering one of the people on board to act as a human shield over the
engines.

Yilian Soto, Castillo Diaz's wife, said her husband, who has been in the
United States for three years, went fishing with his friend "Roly" on a
borrowed speedboat. He called her on Sunday and told her he and his
friend rescued a group of Cubans in a sinking vessel and were arrested
for smuggling, Soto said.

"My husband has never been involved in human trafficking," she said.

Soto, Escandón and relatives of people on the cutter were part of
Monday's news conference. Crying and clutching photos of their loved
ones, they asked U.S. authorities to allow their family members into the
country.

"Don't return them. Don't take them away," said Rebeca Croes, whose twin
sister, Morelia Croes, was part of the group. "They are traumatized
because they saw a dead person, because they were part of a shootout,
because they went through a lot of ugly things."

Madeline Baró Diaz can be reached at mbaro@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.

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