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2 smuggling suspects are freed on bond in Miami
By Jay Weaver and Tere Figueras. jweaver@herald.com. Posted
on Sat, Nov. 30, 2002 in The
Miami Herald.
A 14-year-old Cuban boy, his father and four others who landed on Key West
hidden on a 21-foot boat this week were released from immigration detention
Friday, while the two men charged with smuggling them into the country walked
out of the Miami federal detention center on bond.
''The little boy is happy but bewildered, which is understandable,'' said
his family's attorney, Grisel Ybarra.
All six passengers were transferred to Catholic Charities in Little Havana
for processing, and the teenager, Leonel Figueroa Orozco, and his father, Leonel
Figueroa Oliva, stepped into the cool Miami night just after 6:15 p.m.
They were whisked away by family members in a dark SUV, and the teenager
said he was "fine, fine, the best ever.''
Ybarra said the boy's sister and her husband, a U.S. Marine, flew out from
Southern California to celebrate a late Thanksgiving.
Inside the charity, one of the smuggler suspects, Elizardo Ruiz Alvarez, who
is related to some of his passengers, huddled with family members after his bond
hearing and release Friday morning. His girlfriend sobbed on his shoulder.
''She's crying because she's glad she's with him, but she's also nervous
about what's going to happen,'' said one of Ruiz Alvarez's cousins, Luis Crespo.
Ruiz Alvarez and Martin Mendez Diaz, both Cuban-born, were charged with
alien smuggling after the Coast Guard intercepted their drifting boat on Monday
off Key West. Their passengers were found hiding in the cabin after the boat was
docked.
The five adults scrambled to dry ground, virtually earning the right to
stay, but the boy didn't make it off the boat and was briefly detained on a
Coast Guard ship. The boy's separation from his father prompted comparisons to
the saga of Elián González, who was 5 when he was rescued on an
inner tube off Florida's coast on Thanksgiving Day three years ago.
But U.S. authorities brought the teen to shore to serve as a witness against
the two smuggler suspects.
Leonel was transferred from a Catholic facility known as Boystown to the
Immigration and Naturalization Service's Krome detention center.
The wife of one of the smuggling suspects said relatives in Miami have been
in touch with the boy's mother, Mayda Orozco Fernández, in Cuba.
''She said she is sad to be apart from him, but happy that he will soon be
living in freedom,'' said Mirta Figueroa, whose brother is the teen's father.
Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, the teen and five adult passengers can apply
for legal residency in one year.
Meanwhile, the smuggling suspects' attorney and federal prosecutors struck
an agreement Friday allowing Mendez, 44, and Ruiz, 30, to revise their bond so
they could be released from the Miami Federal Detention Center downtown.
Each had to post a $30,000 corporate bond and a $100,000 personal bond --
more lenient than the $60,000 corporate bond set Wednesday. With a corporate
bond, each suspect must post a 15 percent down payment. The personal bond is
secured with material assets, such as the equity on a home.
Their attorney, Frank Quintero, said the government's charge of alien
smuggling was off the mark because the men were bringing in only family members
and not profiting from the venture. He also said they did not try to evade
authorities before their stalled boat was towed by the Coast Guard to Key West
-- though their five concealed adult passengers rushed onto land while the teen
remained behind.
''They were not evading the law, so it's not smuggling,'' Quintero said.
The family said Friday night that they are sick of the media attention.
''Everything that's been said has been said already,'' Crespo said. "They're
happy, they're free and they're going home.''
Herald staff writers Joe Mozingo, Matthew I. Pinzur and Andres Viglucci
contributed to this report. | 
