Ray Sanchez | Cuba notebook
September 16, 2007
Havana
Word about potential smuggling voyages comes to her almost weekly, a
24-year-old woman named Adiany says.
Just last week, a friend informed her that two go-fast boats from South
Florida would pick up 52 Cuban migrants along the northern coast. "This
time it's a sure thing," the friend insisted.
Though anxious to be reunited with her husband in Miami, Adiany
declined. The uncertainty and peril surrounding two of her previous
trips worried her mother. "I don't think she can handle the stress,"
said Adiany, who asked that her full name not be used for fear of
reprisals by Cuban police.
Adiany claims to have tried to leave the island 25 times. Cuban police
have arrested her "numerous" times on her way to meet smugglers, and
held her overnight, she said. Other times the boats failed to show up.
Twice she has made it on board smuggling vessels, only to be intercepted
by the U.S. Coast Guard and returned to Cuba.
"You try and you fail," said Adiany, who now contemplates flying to a
Latin American country and entering the United States through Mexico.
"Then you keep trying and trying until finally you make it."
The number of Cubans trying to leave the island appears to be rising,
according to analysts and coast guard officials, who cite an increase in
interdictions at sea this year. With slightly more than three months to
year's end — as of Thursday — the Coast Guard has intercepted 2,467
Cuban migrants at sea, compared with a total of 2,293 in 2006. The
current rate threatens to eclipse the 2,952 migrants intercepted in
2005, the largest one-year total since 1994, when 37,191 Cubans were
picked up at sea during the rafter crisis.
Adiany attributed the surge to growing desperation among Cubans
frustrated with economic disparities as well as U.S. and Cuban
government polices that force the separation of families. Because she
has been arrested for trying to leave Cuba, Adiany can no longer find work.
Her husband, Franscisco, left Cuba on a go-fast boat a year and a half
ago. He lives in Miami, where he installs Direct TV equipment, work that
helped him raise part of the $10,000 fee the smugglers will collect when
they bring Adiany to Florida. He sends money to Adiany and her mother,
but U.S. government limits the amount he can send to $100 per month.
Her mother has done her part to raise the smuggler's fee as well,
illegally selling her home in Cuba and moving into a smaller house.
"Getting to Florida becomes an obsession," Adiany said. "The desperation
is so great."
Adiany calmly described the disturbing first moments of the perilous
journeys. As many as two dozen people wait in water up to their necks or
deeper for the boat to arrive. When it does, "People climb over you,"
she said. "I was pushed underwater. People stepped on me. It's a human
stampede. No one cares. There is no control."
A friend of Adiany provided similar accounts. Emilia, a 21-year-old
Cuban who twice crossed the Florida Straits with Adiany, said smugglers
attempt to maintain order by requesting that women and children board
first, but to no avail.
"The men are the first to climb up," Emilia said in a phone interview.
"Only then do they try to help others. Everyone fears that the Cuban
coast guard will show up and they'll be left behind. It's survival of
the fittest."
Adiany and Emilia most recently boarded a boat July 23. Adiany said a
migrant traveling near her repeatedly struck his head on the floor of
the vessel as it pulled into the open sea. She remembered his head
swelling and his body convulsing and twitching as the go-fast boat
equipped with three 250-horsepower engines lurched along the Florida
Straits in the predawn.
"I remember him saying at the start of our journey that he was
determined to reach the United States even in death," Adiany said. "He
nearly died."
After the smuggling vessel was intercepted 65 miles south of Dry
Tortugas, the man Adiany called Carlos was flown by helicopter to
Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. Because he had reached dry land, he
was allowed to remain in the United States.
The two suspected smugglers were turned over to the customs and border
protection authorities in Key West as part of a criminal investigation,
according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Of the 24 migrants, nine – including a child and Emilia – were turned
over to American officials in Key West to assist in the criminal
investigation. The testimony of the other migrants, including Adiany,
was not needed and they were returned to Cuba on Aug. 2.
Ray Sánchez can be reached at rlsanchez@sun-sentinel.com.
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