Cubans drown in attempt to reach U.S.
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
At least 25 Cubans are presumed dead after a failed attempt to
get to the United States by boat from the coastal town of Santa
Cruz del Norte, in Havana province.
According to relatives of some of the victims, Cuban authorities
recovered eight bodies and were still searching for 17 others
still missing Wednesday night and presumed dead after their boat
overturned last week. Other unconfirmed reports said authorities
had recovered 11 bodies.
One of the deceased was identified by a family member as Yosvanny
Vera Alvarez, 29, from Aguada de Pasajeros in Cienfuegos in central
Cuba. The victim leaves behind a 9-year-old son.
According to Lázaro Vera Alvarez, who lives in Tampa, his
brother's body was handed over to his mother on Saturday in Aguada
de Pasajeros, where he was buried.
''State security turned up at my mother's house to deliver the
body,'' Vera Alvarez said in a telephone interview. ``He's already
been buried.''
As of Wednesday evening, Cuban authorities had yet to report the
fatalities.
Interviews with Cubans familiar with the drownings offered different
versions of events.
Most of those interviewed by El Nuevo Herald indicated that the
group left aboard a go-fast boat sometime between Thursday and
Friday night with 28 passengers, including children. The motor
boat had arrived in Cuba from Miami, those interviewed said.
The boat capsized shortly after its departure. The boat was being
chased by the Cuban coast guard, those familiar with the incident
said, and it ended up crashing into a reef.
A heated discussion among the passengers ensued, destabilizing
the boat and causing passengers to be flung overboard.
''They told my mother that my brother was rescued after the accident
but that he died of cardiac arrest when he was taken to the coast
guard boat,'' Lázaro Vera said.
``Everything's very strange, but there's evidence that the boat
was hit by the Cuban coast guard.''
Vera Alvarez's mother, reached over the phone in Cuba by El Nuevo,
declined to comment. ''I don't know anything. I am crushed,''
she said.
Vera Alvarez said his brother was a dissident and headed the Independent
Union of Cuban Workers, a group considered illegal by the Cuban
government.
Other Cubans interviewed over the phone said that there are three
survivors, among them a woman from Calimete in Matanzas province,
east of Havana; an unidentified alleged smuggler, and a doctor
named Sandy Carmona, from Aguada de Pasajeros. Carmona was taken
to the state security at Villa Marista in Havana.
The deaths would be the second tragedy in less than a month involving
Cubans at sea.
On Nov. 24, 20 Cubans -- including 12 children -- from the town
of Perico in Matanzas, vanished after they left on a boat off
the north coast. The U.S. Coast Guard declared the group lost
at sea after a failed search in the Florida Straits.
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