Published Thursday, August 9, 2001 in
The Miami Herald
Suspect's family died on boat run
By Marika Lynch. mlynch@herald.com
When Osvaldo Fernández Marrero risked squalls and rolling seas on an
alleged night smuggling run to Cuba, he wasn't in it for quick cash, friends and
relatives said Wednesday.
He went to the island to pick up his wife and two young daughters -- but his
family didn't make it to Miami.
Relatives said those three family members were among at least six dead, or
missing and presumed dead, in the capsizing of a go-fast boat south of Key West,
the most tragic Cuban smuggling incident since 1998.
"Papi doesn't love me. He doesn't come to get me,'' 7-year-old Irdelis
Fernández complained since her father left their hometown of Las Villas
for Miami in 1999, her aunt recalled Wednesday.
"If you think he did this for money, he didn't,'' said Daili Martínez,
Osvaldo Fernández's sister-in-law. "He was desperate. Completely
desperate.''
Young Irdelis, sister Irelis Fernández, 1, and mother Iraida Martínez,
37, all disappeared the morning of Aug. 1, family members said.
A cousin of the family, Margarita Martínez, also was aboard the boat,
but survived. She is being held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in
a Miami-Dade County hotel.
The revelation -- that four members of the group were related to one of the
accused smugglers -- could complicate the government's case against Fernández
and friend Roberto Montero Domínguez.
Immigration officials have painted the Miami-area men as greedy smugglers
who disregarded foul weather reports in order to pocket $40,000 from the run.
Both are accused of conspiracy to smuggle aliens and attempted alien smuggling
for profit.
On Wednesday, six of the survivors testified before a federal grand jury in
Key West. In a court hearing today, U.S. Magistrate Robert L. Dube will decide
whether Fernández and Montero should be held without bond. The government
says both are flight risks and dangers to the community.
Montero's relatives couldn't be reached Wednesday.
A former roommate didn't have kind words about Montero, 30.
Joel Orosa, 22, whose mother was Montero's girlfriend, said Montero hardly
worked, never contributed to rent in their $775-a-month, two-bedroom apartment
and preferred to sit at home with friends and drink beer.
"I don't like to get involved with those type of people,'' Orosa said
of Montero and his friends. "As a matter of fact, whenever they come here,
they go stand outside. I don't even like to have them in my house.''
Montero moved out about a month ago when he broke up with Orosa's mom, he
said.
Friends and family -- who say they didn't know the details of the trip --
painted a different picture of Fernández.
He came to the United States for a better life for his family, Daili Martínez
said. He worked laying floors so that he could send money each month to his
wife, whom he met more than seven years ago while they worked at a sugar
cooperative in Cuba.
He drives a beat-up Chevrolet Berreta, with the front left side nearly torn
off. His tiny rented room has few belongings besides an old TV set, his
dust-covered work boots and two white candles.
Fernández carried pictures of his girls in his wallet, plastered them
on the mirror in his apartment, and never stopped talking about his family, his
landlord said.
But when a judge earlier this week asked if he had children, he answered
simply, "No.''
Herald staff writer Jennifer Babson contributed to this
report.
Relatives of boat survivors await their release in Miami
By Ken Thomas. Associated Press Writer
MIAMI -- (AP) -- Relatives of Cubans who survived an ill-fated apparent
smuggling trip from Cuba to the Key West awaited the release of family members
Thursday outside an INS processing center on the edge of the steamy Everglades.
Tomas Gonzalez sat with four relatives at a picnic table outside the gates
of the Krome Avenue processing center, waiting for a brother and a cousin who
were among the 20 Cubans rescued in the Florida Straits early on Aug. 1.
"The FBI called us last night and told us to be at Krome at 10 a.m.,''
Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said his nephew, Mario Gonzalez Jr., 31, died when the speedboat
capsized and sank in rough seas as they tried to sneak from Cuba to Florida.
Three adults and three children died. The oldest child was six.
Only one body, that of Gonzalez' adult nephew, was recovered, and Gonzalez
said his family was awaiting the release of the body, too, from medical
officials in Key West.
"This is the story of our lives, of us Cubans. This situation seems to
have no end,'' Gonzalez said.
Six of the survivors were back in Key West on Wednesday to testify before a
federal grand jury investigating the alleged smuggling.
The group was rescued Aug. 1 in the Florida Straits off Key West hours after
their speedboat capsized and sank in rough, dark seas as they tried to sneak in
from Cuba.
More survivors are expected to testify next week when the grand jury meets
again in Key West, The Miami Herald reported for Thursday editions.
Charged with smuggling for allegedly operating the boat are Osvaldo
Fernandez Marrero, 35, and Roberto Montero Dominguez, 30, rescued along with the
passengers.
A bond hearing for both was scheduled for Thursday in U.S. District Court in
Miami. The government has said it will oppose their release, saying they are a
danger to the community and could flee.
A survivor told investigators that one of the smugglers expected to make
$40,000 from the trip, and another survivor said he had been charged $8,000 for
the illegal passage, court papers said.
But Marrero's sister-in-law, who lives in Miami, said her brother-in-law
didn't make the trip for money, that instead he was trying to get his young
family to the United States.
Daili Martinez told the Herald that Marerro's wife and two daughters were
among those presumed dead.
"If you think he did this for money, he didn't,'' she said. "He
was desperate. Completely desperate.''
The decision to allow the Cubans to remain in the United States is contrary
to the Clinton administration's so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy of
repatriating Cubans picked up at sea and admitting those who reach U.S. soil,
including Fernandez and Montero. Fernandez arrived in 1999, and Montero a year
earlier.
In the past, Havana has accused Washington of not doing enough to stop
illegal-immigrant smuggling between Cuba and the United States.
Until just a few years ago, federal investigators had little to pursue
because no one cooperated. But alien-smuggling indictments involving trips from
Cuba are becoming more common as passengers or their relatives come forward.
FBI arrests wayward solo flier
By Luisa Yanez, lyanez@herald.com
Milo John Reese, the pizza delivery man who took a plane last week in the
Florida Keys and crashed-landed in Cuba, returned Wednesday afternoon to the
United States -- where he was promptly arrested by FBI agents.
Reese, 55, smiling, held out his hands to be handcuffed at Miami
International Airport. Later, he asked the agents for a meal. No pizza, please.
He got a Whopper. And coffee.
"He said he was hungry,'' said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. Reese
wore his Pizza Hut uniform on the flight to Cuba, but returned in clothing
obtained on the island.
Reese was driven to the Federal Detention Center in Miami by FBI agents
Carlos Cintron and Phil Crouch. He'll have a hearing this afternoon before U.S.
Magistrate Judge Robert L. Dubé.
"We're still investigating why he took the plane to Cuba,'' Orihuela
said.
Reese's arrest capped another astonishing South Florida tale: Reese -- a
Pizza Hut delivery driver in Marathon, former anti-prostitution crusader in
Reno, Nev., who once faked his own death -- took off for Cuba during his first
solo flight last week.
In radio transmissions with his flight instructor, Reese said he panicked at
the controls.
The FBI charged Reese with interstate transportation of a stolen aircraft,
punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison. He also faces grand theft
charges in Monroe County for taking a Cessna 172 from Paradise Aviation, a
flight school at the Marathon airport. If convicted, he could face 15 years in
prison.
On Wednesday, the Cuban government allowed Reese to leave after officials
determined he did not have political motivations when he crashed landed on a
beach near Havana on July 31.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said Reese arrived in Cuba "really
by mistake, by an accident which fortunately did not lead to the loss of human
life . . . we gave him the proper treatment, medical and otherwise, and all the
facilities to return to the United States.''
Susan Reese, the pilot's wife, has told authorities that her husband is
manic-depressive and is probably off his medication.
She declined to comment.
Reese spent his time in Cuba at a naval hospital in Cojímar, nursing
minor injuries suffered when he crash-landed on the rocky beach, causing the
Cessna to flip over. Consular officials from the U.S. Interests Section later
arranged for his stay at a hotel until his return could be arranged.
Reese was escorted to Terminal 2 of the José Martí
International Airport by three plainclothes Cuban officials.
"They treated me like a king,'' said Reese, who carried a copy of
Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, under his arm.
The Cubans placed Reese aboard a scheduled Gulfstream International Airlines
charter flight to Miami. He was one of about 10 passengers aboard the 19-seat
Beech 1900.
He flew unescorted -- which troubled fellow passengers.
"Let me tell you, I'm very upset this man was allowed to travel on a
plane like that after what he did,'' said Angel Infante, of Hialeah.
During the short flight, less than one hour, Infante said Reese left his
seat and walked to the cabin area to talk to the pilot.
"It was very unnerving for those of us on the plane,'' Infante said. "What
if he decided to do the same thing?''
Back in Havana, Foreign Minister Pérez Roque said the Cessna will
soon be returned to the U.S., but did not say when.
"The plane, or what remains of the plane, will be returned in its
entirety to the United States, down to the last screw,'' Pérez Roque told
foreign reporters.
This report was supplemented by material from the Associated Press and
Agence France-Presse.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
