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By Jennifer Babson. jbabson@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Jun.
19, 2002 in The Miami Herald.
KEY WEST - The U.S. Coast Guard has located seven Cuban migrants who were
adrift in a 16-foot boat for more than two days between Cuba and the Keys.
A Coast Guard C-130 plane found the group about 30 miles northwest of Cay
Sal Bank in the Bahamas at about 12:40 p.m, Coast Guard spokeswoman Anastasia
Burns confirmed. A small plane piloted by José Basulto of the Cuban exile
group Brothers to the Rescue also spotted the boat at roughly the same time,
using the signal from a ham radio the boat's captain had onboard to try and
pinpoint his location.
The Coast Guard cutter Nantucket is on its way to the area, Burns said, and
is expected to arrive on scene by about 2:10 p.m.
A Coast Guard helicopter is also en route from Miami, Burns said, in case an
18-year old woman who may be seriously ill aboard the vessel needs to be
evacuated for medical attention.
The Coast Guard plane ''was flying over the spot and they saw seven people
waving their arms in a blue boat,'' Burns said.
The captain of the migrant boat, Pedro Carrasco, used a ham radio to
communicate with other ham radio operators and the Herald for the past several
days. The group left an area near Matanzas Bay at about 1 a.m. Monday. Shortly
after they departed, the boat's only engine cut out.
It's not yet clear whether the group will now be sent back to Cuba or
allowed to remain in the U.S. Under the ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' migration policy,
Cuban migrants interdicted at sea are usually repatriated to the island unless
they can present a credible fear of persecution if they are returned. Those who
reach land are generally allowed to stay. | 
