Yahoo! June 7, 2001
Rescued Cubans Seek Asylum in Haiti
By MICHAEL NORTON, Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 7 (AP) - Twelve Cubans whose sailboat sank on the way
to Florida and were rescued by a Haitian freighter asked Wednesday for political
asylum in Haiti, Radio Vision 2000 reported.
The freighter picked the men out of the Old Bahama Channel on May 31. Their
boat sank in international waters near Cay Lobos island, about 250 miles from
the United States.
The group included doctors and other professionals, Yvon Paul, a central
government deputy representative in Cap-Haitien, told independent Radio Vision
2000.
The Cubans were examined at Cap-Haitien's Justinien Hospital and found to be
in good health. They were jailed in the Cap-Haitien police station pending a
government decision on their asylum request.
Haiti re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1996, 35 years after
the government of dictator Francois "Papa Doc'' Duvalier severed them as a
gesture of good will toward the United States. Since then, cooperation between
the Caribbean nations has grown.
About 800 Cuban doctors and medical personnel provide care in many remote
areas of Haiti, and more than 100 Haitians have received medical school
scholarships in Cuba. Cuban technicians also assist Haiti with fishery and
agriculture projects.
Man Said to Rescue Elian Visits Cuba
HAVANA, 6 (AP) - One of two American cousins credited with rescuing Cuban
boy Elian Gonzalez off Florida's coast said he hopes to meet Elian and perhaps
Fidel Castro (news - web sites) during a two-week visit to Cuba.
"In those months of uncertainty, there were only two heroes: Elian and
Fidel,'' Sam Ciancio was quoted as saying in an interview published Wednesday in
the Communist Youth Union newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. Ciancio supported
Castro's efforts to have the boy returned to Cuba.
The newspaper said Ciancio and his 18-year-old son traveled here this week
to take part in an international swordfish competition dedicated to Ernest
Hemingway.
Elian, who is now 7, was a hero "for everything that happened to him,''
Ciancio said. "Fidel, because he conducted the vast battle in an admirable
way,'' he added.
Ciancio and his cousin, Donato Dalrymple, were fishing on Thanksgiving Day
1999 aboard Ciancio's 25-foot boat when they spotted the boy floating in an
inner tube.
The boy was one of only three people who survived when their boat capsized
on its way from Cuba to the United States, killing Elian's mother and 10 others.
Elian was placed temporarily with his relatives in Miami, who then launched
a battle to keep the child with them in the United States. Elian's father in
Cuba, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was backed by Castro in his effort to have the child
repatriated.
The boy returned to Cuba with his father last June 28 after the Miami
relatives lost their legal battle for custody.
Since rescuing the boy, Ciancio and Dalrymple have had a serious falling
out.
During the custody battle, Dalrymple befriended Elian's Miami relatives. It
was Dalrymple who was holding Elian when armed federal agents stormed the house
to take the boy to his father.
Ciancio, meanwhile, befriended Elian's family in Cuba, even visiting them
once last year after Elian's return.
While he said he hopes to meet with his "old friends,'' he also hopes
for the opportunity to shake Castro's hand "and congratulate him for the
rightness in which he has always acted,'' the newspaper said. | 