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By Larissa Ruiz Campo and Nancy San Martin.
nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Sep. 02, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
It was 4 o'clock on a sweltering day last summer when the phone rang at the
home of Mario González in a Havana suburb. At the other end, a voice
delivered the message he had been waiting for.
''There will be movement,'' said the caller, meaning that a boat loaded with
Cubans would be leaving for South Florida later that day.
González already had sold his small trucking business and pulled
together a lifetime of savings to pay for a trip that was supposed to offer a
fresh start in a land filled with opportunities. But although González
eventually made it to America, his 31-year-old son became a statistic in what is
becoming an increasingly deadly illegal enterprise:
According to the Coast Guard, landings during the past 11 months indicate
that one out of 20 Cubans being smuggled to South Florida dies along the way.
At least 55 Cubans -- including the remains of four found off the coast of
Florida in recent days -- have died in smuggling runs from the island since
October, making the 11-month period the most tragic ever for would-be
immigrants, who pay thousands of dollars for a space in a speed boat that can
outrun Coast Guard vessels patrolling the Florida Straits.
''That's just what we know about,'' said Capt. Joseph Nimmich of the Coast
Guard in Key West. "This shows the little value smugglers have on human
life.''
INSIDE CUBA
González's tale offers a glimpse into how the smuggling network
operates inside Cuba.
The ventures are risky, expensive and headed by opportunists who authorities
say are more interested in making money from desperate Cubans than getting them
out of the Western Hemisphere's last remaining communist land.
''The people organizing these trips aren't crusaders,'' said Patricia Diaz,
a deputy chief at the U.S. attorney's office in Miami who supervises the
prosecution of smuggling cases involving deaths. "They are unscrupulous
individuals driven by greed.''
The phone call González received on July 31 last year would be the
eighth time in three months he and his son would attempt to reach South Florida.
Arrangements for the $16,000 journey were made through a friend who knew of
people who ''dedicated themselves to that,'' Gonzalez said. Each passenger on
that trip was charged $8,000.
U.S. investigators say the smuggling ''cells'' operate out of South Florida
and generally involve ''brokers'' on both sides. Here, the brokers solicit
people who want to get family members out of Cuba. On the island, they are in
charge of getting clients to boats that carry from a dozen to 30 people at fees
of $5,000 to $10,000 per head.
The 53-year-old said he decided to abandon his life in Havana to give his
first-born and only remaining child a chance at a future. A younger son had been
killed by a drunken driver years earlier. His wife would stay behind on the
island.
Mario González Jr., who had a degree as a civil engineer, had already
fled Cuba in 1997 but he was repatriated after the boat he was traveling on was
interdicted at sea. Under U.S. law, only those Cubans who make it to land
automatically get a shot at permanent residency.
''I made the contacts because I wanted my son to get ahead,'' González
said. "He had studied, and in Cuba he couldn't get ahead.''
They all climbed into a van and two cars. At 8:30 p.m. the group arrived at
a beach in Santa Cruz del Norte, about 10 miles from Guanabacoa. There, they hid
in the tall grass until the boat arrived about half an hour later.
When the travelers spotted the beam from a flashlight just offshore, they
all frantically raced to the boat.
''Everybody tried to climb in at the same time. It was all very
disorganized,'' Yuzaima Méndez, one of the other passengers, said during
a recent court appearance in Miami. Méndez also lost a child on that
trip, 3-year-old Talía Izquierdo Méndez.
Six hours later, the boat found itself in the midst of Tropical Storm Barry.
The two boat operators, who have since been convicted on smuggling charges in
Miami, saw a light on the horizon. They stopped the engines fearing they had
been intercepted. Strong waves flipped the boat over and its occupants fell into
the sea. Six people, including González's son, were killed.
ONE LIFE JACKET
González, who cannot swim, had carried only one homemade life jacket.
That vest kept him afloat as he held on to the body of his drowned son until the
two were plucked out of the water by a Coast Guard helicopter the morning of
Aug. 1.
Even as he continues to grieve, González said smuggling is the
fastest way out of Cuba for those who "have the means.''
Still, he blames his son's death on the smugglers.
''They don't give you anything,'' González said of the smugglers. "One
has to take care of himself.''
Authorities say the obvious negligence is further proof of the sinister
motives behind these endeavors. Last week, Coast Guard rescued two groups,
including children, that had been left in secluded islands with no food and
water. One group of 24 had lingered for five days before a Coast Guard chopper
on another mission spotted them.
The ventures have become frequent enough that authorities have detected a
pattern.
Most of the boats leave from Key West and pick up loads at various points
along Cuba's coast line. Villa Clara and Pinar del Río's Bahía
Honda -- where the most recent group of missing people left from -- are among
the landing sites used most frequently by smugglers, officials said.
There are at least 11 U.S. citizens currently in Cuban prisons on a variety
of charges, including migrant smuggling, according to the State Department.
Dozens more U.S. residents are behind bars in Cuba on smuggling charges.
Most are Cuban nationals from South Florida who have obtained permanent
residency status.
Hoping to break the cycle, federal prosecutors are more vigorously pursuing
cases and getting a record number of convictions. The 18 maritime smuggling
cases handled by the U.S. attorney's office in Miami so far this year involve 37
defendants: one is a fugitive, eight have been convicted, 13 have plead guilty
and are awaiting sentence and 15 are awaiting trial. The maximum penalty for
alien smuggling is 15 years and can be upgraded to life or the death penalty if
deaths are involved.
Meanwhile, González has slowly begun to put his life together. His
wife, who was allowed to come for their son's burial, has remained here.
The couple now has one son buried in Havana, the other in Miami.
Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to
this report. | 
