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CUBA
NEWS
Yahoo!
Survivors See Each For First Time Since
High-Seas Voyage
Mon Mar 29,10:45 AM ET
The three survivors of a deadly journey
from Cuba to South Florida came together
for a bittersweet reunion Sunday.
Melena Martinez, Carlos Hernandez and
William Perez floated for eight days on
a makeshift raft, enduring 6- to 8-foot
waves and severe dehydration.
Last Thursday they were rescued off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Five other Cubans died during the voyage.
Cubans Recall Harrowing Voyage to Fla.
By Adrian Sainz, Associated
Press Writer. Fri Mar 26
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Three Cuban immigrants
who survived a harrowing voyage to Florida
lashed to rafts made with inner tubes said
10-foot swells and the lack of food and
water nearly drained all their strength
and hope.
In hospital interviews Friday, the survivors
said they lost all their food two days into
the trip, which began March 18 from Jibacoa,
Cuba, and were forced to drink their own
urine.
"The wind played games with us. A
strong wind came and overturned the raft,"
William Villavicencio Perez, 31, said in
Spanish. "We lost everything that fell
in the water. And we had only one oar."
"I was losing my grip in the final
moments before I was found." he said,
adding: "I had faith in God and that
faith allowed me to be rescued."
Villavicencio and Carlos Lazaro Bringier
Hernandez, 38, were helped to shore by beachgoers
Thursday as they approached the South Florida
coastline. The same day, Milena Isabel Gonzalez
Martinez, 37, was plucked from the ocean
by a diver and a rescue helicopter. They
were in stable condition Friday at Holy
Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale.
But five members of the group disappeared
at different times during the trip; the
Coast Guard ended the search for their bodies
Friday.
Gonzalez's husband was the first to disappear,
probably Tuesday, Bringier said.
"He was acting normally, then all
of a sudden he says, 'I'm leaving.' So he
jumped into the water," Bringier said.
"When we noticed that he had really
jumped, we had lost him behind a large wave."
The group realized the sea had claimed
its second victim overnight.
"We woke up and he was just not there,"
Bringier said.
A decision was made to separate the raft
into two, with the stronger members of the
group - Villavicencio, Bringier and a third
man - using one of the rafts to row ahead
and look for land or passing boats.
Gonzalez, the only woman on the voyage,
was on the second raft with two other men,
who were not identified.
Eventually, Gonzalez would see the two
men on her raft release their grip and disappear
into the ocean.
"They just went into the water on
their own. They were desperate, but I stayed
calm," Gonzalez said from the intensive
care unit at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the three on the lead raft inched
closer to shore. But in the effort, the
companion of Villavicencio and Bringier
disappeared.
Gonzalez recalled hallucinating several
times that she was being rescued before
the Coast Guard showed up.
"I made signals for them to be able
to see me and come get me," she said.
"I had just drank the last bit of urine.
I was dying."
Gonzalez's twin 14-year-old boys remain
in Cuba, and she said she's having trouble
dealing with her decision to leave them.
"It was craziness on my part,"
she said. "If I were in the same position
again, I wouldn't do it. It's too risky."
For Bringier, a former emergency worker
with lifeguard training, the decision to
flee was a familiar one; he's tried about
a dozen times to reach the United States
by sea, he said. He said he told his wife
he was going out for cigarettes.
"I left right away, and here I am,"
he said.
Lazaro Guzman, a senior U.S. Border Patrol
agent, said the agency would interview the
three Cubans when they were released from
the hospital. If they are found to be foreign
nationals, they would be taken to the Krome
Detention Center west of Miami, he said.
Under current U.S. policy, Cuban migrants
who reach dry land are generally allowed
to stay in the United States, while those
who are intercepted at sea are normally
returned to Cuba.
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