Bravo and Garcia were on a Mako, a 21-foot sport-fishing boat with a 200 horsepower outboard. The Cuban government reported finding six life jackets, a global positioning system, and a cell phone onboard. Morales and Gonzalez's 23-foot, inboard propeller boat was equipped with four life vests, a cell phone, a searchlight, and a two-way radio. They also had tanks holding 75 gallons of gasoline and a reserve tank of 55 gallons. "They were old boats," Barbara Morales says. "The media made it sound like they were on Cigarettes. Something else that wasn't reported was the fact that they had all their fishing gear."
The women believe the two boats lost each other at sea, then Bravo's vessel stalled and waves pushed it into Cuban territory. When Morales and Gonzalez went searching for them, they all ended up in the wrong place. "I think they just lost track of time, and when Roberto realized that Denis was missing, he started looking for him," Mendez says. The men are being held at Combinado del Este prison. Cuban relatives have visited them four times. No trial date has been set.
Lissette Corsa
Juana Maria Chambrot and her husband, Alfredo Conde, claim a Cuban smuggler brought them to the United States
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Despite the new aggressive approach at sea and in the courtroom, smugglers continue to profit. Groups of clean-shaven men keep walking into Miami Beach hotels and restaurants claiming they have just rowed into South Florida. And, as in most matters involving Washington and Havana these days, cooperation is often tinged with animosity.
Cuban President Fidel Castro claims U.S. immigration policy drives Cubans to rely on smugglers. He accuses Cuban exiles in Miami of financing the trips. In turn the United States has flayed Cuba's decision to bar many exiles from returning home.
Indeed Miami Cubans have attacked every part of the Cuban-American collaboration. U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart has called it morally repugnant. Ninoska Perez Castellon, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation, has termed it a joke. "If a speedboat is going into Cuba to pick up people, I'm sure they pay Cuban authorities to let them go in undetected," she comments. "It's hard to believe that the Cuban government isn't getting a cut of smuggling profits. The big-time operations are done with the blessing of the government. It's absurd that at this point, after 40 years, that Castro would collaborate with us on anything."
Meanwhile Cuban migrants come prepared for battle as they near U.S. soil. On July 6, for instance, Coast Guard officials intercepted a vessel equipped with 60 knives and two spear guns. Refugees have even attacked the Coast Guard. They have also attempted to swim to shore, to outrun authorities, to kill themselves, and even to hold hostages onboard.
In June desperation led a Cuban woman to threaten to drown her baby when a Coast Guard cutter approached. A month later a Coast Guard aircraft spotted eleven Cubans coming into South Florida. Nine jumped into the water when they realized they had been discovered. Two children who remained aboard the boat watched a male passenger cut his abdomen with a razor blade to avoid repatriation. That same day, in a separate incident, the Coast Guard interdicted a Cuban woman who threatened to slash her wrists to avoid being sent back to Cuba.
Also in July a Cuban migrant brandished a machete to ward off U.S. authorities. When he cut in front of a Coast Guard boat, the two vessels collided. Twelve Cubans were thrown overboard and one woman died. Later that month another Cuban refugee doused himself and others aboard a vessel with gasoline and threatened to set everyone on fire. In another July incident, a Cuban slit his wrist with the jagged edge of a torn soda can. A month later a man chewed the inside of his mouth until it bled.
All of them were repatriated.
