Repatriated Cubans bet on American dream coming true

Repatriated Cubans bet on American dream coming true
Thu Mar 2, 2006 1:29 PM ET

By Esteban Israel

SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA, Cuba (Reuters) - Cubans who made the dangerous
crossing to Florida only to land on an abandoned bridge and be sent home
in a controversial decision, are now dreaming of America, a new car and
the freedom they say awaits them in Miami.

"My mind is already over there in those skyscrapers. I just want to
work, have a house and a brand new car," said Emiliano Batista, a
22-year-old waiter who has tried crossing the Florida Straits 18 times.

In his last attempt at the 90-mile (120-km) crossing, Batista crowded
into a makeshift motorboat with 14 other men, women and children in late
January. The group thought they had made it when they were picked up by
the U.S. Coast Guard on an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys.

But the Coast Guard decided the century-old Seven Mile Bridge did not
count as dry land because sections were missing and it was no longer
attached to U.S. soil.

The group was returned to Communist Cuba under the U.S. government's
controversial "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy which allows Cubans who reach
land to stay while those intercepted at sea get repatriated.

A U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday in Miami that the U.S. Coast Guard erred
in returning the group and ordered federal authorities to make their
best effort to help them return to the United States.

It is not clear if President Fidel Castro's government, which restricts
the freedom of Cubans to leave the island, will permit their legal
migration to the United States.

But in their dusty farm town 70 miles east of Havana, confidence is
running high among the hopeful migrants.

"We were sad, overcome by uncertainty. But now we are sure that
everything will work out well," said Batista, who already speaks about
his life in Cuba in the past tense.

The group, aged 2 to 48 years, have already filled out applications for
Cuban passports and the U.S. Interests Section in Havana has scheduled
them for visa interviews on Monday.

Their repatriation angered Cuban exiles in Miami who believe all Cubans
should be allowed to stay because they are fleeing persecution.

One anti-Castro activist, Ramon Saul Sanchez, went on a hunger strike in
protest, obtaining a White House pledge to meet exile groups and
politicians to discuss the policy.

CUBANS STILL FLEEING

The repatriation of Cuban boat people started a decade ago under
agreements between Washington and Havana that were designed to avoid
another mass exodus like the one in 1994 when 35,000 people took to the
sea, many in flimsy rafts, fleeing economic distress in post-Soviet Cuba.

The United States agreed to grant at least 20,000 visas a year to
encourage orderly emigration.

But Castro routinely accuses Washington of encouraging Cubans to embark
on dangerous crossings in precarious crafts by allowing them to stay if
they manage to make it across.

Economic hardship continues to fuel a constant exodus. In fiscal year
2005, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 2,712 Cubans at sea, the most
since the 1994 crisis. At least 39 others died trying to get to the
United States.

Batista said his group sold everything they had to build an 18-foot
(6-meter) boat and buy a motor on the black market. They took 27 hours
to cross the straits.

"It was worth the cold, the hunger and the danger we went through," said
repatriated migrant Elizabeth Hernandez, who crossed with her husband
and two-year-old son Maikel.

"They said in the United States that we can return," she said. "We don't
think the Cuban authorities will stop us. We haven't done anything wrong
for them to hold us."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-03-02T182937Z_01_N02281466_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-USA-MIGRANTS.xml