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By Charles Rabin. crabin@herald.com. Posted on Fri, Dec.
27, 2002 in The Miami Herald,
Smugglers, possibly spooked by a Coast Guard cutter in the area, abandoned
three dozen Cuban migrants on a Bahamian islet without food or water on
Christmas Eve before the group was rescued and taken to Nassau, Coast Guard
officials said Thursday.
The group -- 25 men, nine women and two girls -- were spotted on Elbow Cay
on Tuesday morning by a Coast Guard Falcon jet that was searching for the
smugglers' go-fast boat. The group was not there long.
The Cubans were ''in good health, suffering only from slight bruises,'' said
Ryan Doss, a Coast Guard spokesman.
Abandoning the Cubans was ''an inhumane act, carried out by people who are
motivated only by a desire for easy money,'' Coast Guard Lt. Tony Russell said.
The group was spirited aboard the cutter Monhegan, then transferred to another
Coast Guard cutter where they received medical attention and were fed, DeMarino
said. Later, the group was taken to Nassau and held at a detention center
southwest of the city Thursday night.
''Fortunately, they were all in good condition,'' Coast Guard spokeswoman
Danielle DeMarino said. ``I can tell you they wanted to be rescued. They were
waving their arms and clothing. A lot of times the Bahamians don't have the
assets to pull off a rescue.''
The Cubans reportedly said they had paid the smugglers for a ride to Florida
waters. Officials were not aware how much the Cubans paid.
A U.S. immigration official in Miami said Thursday that her agency has
nothing to do with the operation, and that the fate of the migrants were now in
the hands of Bahamian authorities.
Bahamian officials could not be reached Thursday to discuss what will happen
to the group. Havana and Nassau have an accord that provides for the
repatriation of undocumented Cubans.
Coast Guard officials believe the smugglers forced the passengers to
disembark Tuesday morning when a Coast Guard ship was spotted nearby, Russell
said. The speedboat then rushed into Cuban waters, and got away.
''When we located the go-fast, only the operators were on board,'' DeMarino
said, adding she wasn't sure how many people were on the boat. ``They evaded us
by going into Cuban territorial seas.''
This year, 963 Cubans have been intercepted in the Florida Straits, the
Coast Guard said. Last year at this time, the number was 777.
A similar incident occurred Jan. 14, 2001, when 15 Cubans -- including an
unconscious woman -- were abandoned in Anguilla Key by two Miami-based
smugglers. The woman died and was buried there; the rest survived on cactus and
snails for five days. Another smuggling boat took them to Key Largo.
The principal smuggler, Jorge Luis (''Bombino'') Alemán, was
sentenced Nov. 21 to life in prison by U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King.
It was the harshest sentence ever given to a human smuggler in South Florida.
Herald staff writer Alfonso Chardy contributed to this report. | 
