Sun-Sentinel. September 21, 2000
Family, friends try to make sense of unexpected escape from Cuba
By Vanessa Bauzá Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 2:45 a.m.
Sep. 21, 2000
They were 10 ordinary people who grew up knowing only a life under Fidel
Castro's government.
A teacher, a pilot, a chauffeur, a housewife, their children and spouses
all crowded into the Soviet-made Antonov An-2 and made an extraordinary escape
from rural western Cuba, which seemed to take even their closest relatives on
both sides of the Florida Straits by surprise. One man would be killed and
another seriously injured when the pilot, who knew he was running out of fuel,
apparently grounded the plane in a desperate bid for help from a nearby
freighter.
As the fate of the nine plane crash survivors became more certain, family
and friends on Wednesday revealed the details of their lives in Cuba and their
dramatic flight to freedom.
Pilot Angel Lenin Iglesias Hernandez and his flight engineer set out for
work from the La Cubana landing strip in Pinar del Rio on Tuesday morning in the
aging crop duster they used to fumigate rice plantations. But Iglesias
apparently persuaded the engineer to stay behind at a second landing strip in
Herradura by telling him he needed to pick up a check.
"He tricked me ... the hijack thing was a lie. ... He went because
he wanted to," the engineer, Juan Jose Galiano Cabrera told a Reuters
reporter in Los Palacios, about 60 miles west of Havana.
"I never thought he would run away," Galiano said, adding he
had worked with Iglesias for more than 20 years. He speculated that his former
colleague fled the island "because he wanted to, because, like so many
ignorant people, he thinks all that glitters is gold."
Cuban police and plainclothes state security agents patrolled Los
Palacios on Wednesday, stopping outsiders and asking them for their identity
papers.
Iglesias' mother, Idiania Hernandez, said she could not believe her son
had fled the island.
"My son is a member of the (Communist) Party and it never crossed
his mind to do something like this," she said. "He was never
interested in leaving the Cuban state. (He) owes his studies and everything else
to the revolution."
With about two hours worth of fuel in the An-2, Iglesias picked up his
wife Mercedes Martinez and their sons David, 7, and Erik, 13. Several other
passengers would join the mission to cross the Florida Straits. Half-brothers
Pabel Puig, 27, and Judel Puig, 23, came along, as did four others who traveled
from Havana to the rural town for the flight.
They are Rodolfo Fuentes, 36, his wife, Liliana Ponzoa, and their son,
Andy Fuentes, 6. Ponzoa's best friend and neighbor, Jacqueline Viera, 28, also
came.
Viera, who worked as a special education teacher at the Martires de la
Coubre primary school, had wanted to join her sister Gladys E. Sanchez, who
moved to Naples a year ago after winning the Cuban visa lottery.
Though Viera was not outspoken, she often disagreed with Castro's
government behind closed doors. Sanchez said her sister may have decided to join
Iglesias' trip at the spur of the moment, fearing that she would never be able
to leave Cuba legally.
"I think a lot of people get despaired, they get bored," said
Sanchez, 37. "They see their lives passing them by and they decide to risk
it. She is brave."
Olga Mojena said her daughter, Ponzoa, had applied for the visa lottery
with no luck. Ponzoa was a housewife and her husband, Fuentes, had worked as a
chauffeur for a Japanese embassy official.
Mojena, 60, was surprised on Tuesday when she heard about Ponzoa. "I
talked to them on Sunday and they didn't say anything," she said.
News that the survivors would be brought to Key West capped a day of
anxiety for Miami relatives.
"This is much bigger than stealing a plane. This is about a family
wanting to be together," said Isidro Puig, 46, the father of half-brothers
Pabel and Judel Puig.
Pabel Puig has a 5-year-old boy and Judel Puig has a son who is 1½.
Both are single and worked odd jobs. Isidro Puig last talked to his sons one
month ago, when they called from a neighbor's house.
There was talk of the half-brothers coming to Miami, but he never
anticipated they would use a stolen plane.
"I would have preferred that they hadn't done that," he said,
shaking his head softly, eyes heavy from lack of sleep. "But they didn't
have another opportunity to escape from that man (Castro)," he said.
A mechanic by trade, Puig came to Miami 20 years ago on the Mariel
boatlift. He has worked hard, but has done so without problems, he said. He
wants the same for his sons -- a decent life outside Cuba.
Sun-Sentinel wire services contributed to this report.
Vanessa Bauzá can be reached at
vbauza@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.
Crash survivors arrive in Key West, almost ensuring they can stay in
U.S.
By John W. Allman And Jody Benjamin. Sun-Sentinel And The
Associated Press . Web-posted: 2:45 a.m. Sep. 21, 2000. Updated 8 a.m.
KEY WEST -- Amid flashing cameras, they walked or were carried onto
U.S. soil from a Coast Guard cutter in the dark of night but showed little
emotion after two days at sea.
The remaining eight Cuban survivors of a plane crash in the Gulf of
Mexico were treated or evaluated early Thursday at a Key West hospital, joining
a ninth survivor airlifted there Tuesday night. A tenth person died when the
plane went down Tuesday about 50 miles west of Cuba.
"Thank God they're well," said Carlos Rodriguez, the
brother-in-law of Liliana Ponzoa, 36, who was brought to the hospital on a
stretcher. "We're extremely emotional."
"We were worried that she wouldn't be allowed into the United
States," said Sandra Ponzoa, sister of Liliana. "We imagined with the
ordeal they went through, it would be very hard to send them back."
The eight survivors -- three women, two men and three children -- were
transported to Florida Lower Keys Hospital by ambulance.
Only one of those survivors was admitted to the hospital after their
medical evaluations, nursing supervisor Rachel Long said. Ponzoa was admitted to
be treated for cuts and lacerations to her leg. The others were taken to Krome
Detention Center by the Immigration and Naturalization Service early Thursday
morning, she said.
Rodolfo Fuentes, 36, flown to Key West with head and neck injuries,
remained at the hospital Thursday. INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona in Washington
said he has been interviewed and is eligible to stay. INS officials in Miami
refused to elaborate about the status of the rest.
"Not until an INS officer has an opportunity to speak with them
will a determination be made as to what their status will be," INS
spokeswoman Patricia Mancha said.
The body of the dead man was taken to the medical examiner for an
autopsy. Hospital officials Thursday identified him as Yudel Puig, believed to
be 24.
The Coast Guard's decision to bring the survivors to the United States
ended nearly two days of speculation about their fate. The change in plans is
all but certain to win them what they sought when they sneaked out of Cuba on
Tuesday: life in the United States.
"We're keeping everybody safe and everybody healthy," Coast
Guard Lt. Cmdr. Ron LaBrec said. "That's our goal because that's our
mission."
Ten people from the small town of Los Palacios were aboard the plane, a
Russian-made Antonov An-2, when it crashed into the Yucatan passage between the
western tip of Cuba and the eastern edge of Mexico.
On board was the pilot, Angel Lenin Iglesias Hernandez, 36, and his
family -- wife Mercedes Martinez, 36, and sons David and Erik Iglesias Martinez,
7 and 13. They were joined by Rodolfo Fuentes, 36, his wife Liliana Ponzoa, 36,
and their son, Andy Fuentes, 7. Also on board was a teacher, Jacqueline Viera,
28, and two brothers, Pabel Puig, 27, and Judel Puig, 23.
Nine survivors and a corpse were plucked from the sea by crew members of
the Chios Dream, a Panamanian freighter bound for New Orleans, after they were
sighted clinging to debris.
Fuentes was flown with critical injuries to Lower Keys Medical Center on
Tuesday night. He was treated for a mild concussion, a back sprain and a head
cut. He remained Wednesday in stable condition.
It was not immediately known which one of the remaining three men had
died in the crash. A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation said
the pilot, Hernandez, was alive.
The decision to bring the remaining survivors to land took its time in
developing.
The Coast Guard had planned to move the survivors earlier to the
Courageous, but were forced by rough seas and strong winds to hold off until
Wednesday night.
As they waited, the two ships, the Courageous and the Chios Dream,
continued moving closer to Key West, hoping to encounter calmer seas.
At 2 p.m. it was decided by the Coast Guard to send a U.S. Navy doctor to
the Chios Dream to examine the survivors, who had received some medical care
Tuesday from a cruise ship doctor.
The Navy doctor reported that one of the women had suffered a likely
broken collarbone, while another had a gash on her leg that required stitches.
The other adults were reported dehydrated, while the children were said to be in
good condition. The Navy doctor recommended that all be evacuated by air without
waiting for the INS interviews.
About 7:30 p.m., the Coast Guard made an interagency conference call
informing officials at INS, the Department of Justice and the Department of
State of their decision.
By 9 p.m., the eight survivors were being moved to the Courageous.
In all, it was fitting end to a day that saw events unfold in nearly as
dramatic a fashion as when news of the crash swept through Miami's Cuban
community on Tuesday.
The survivors spent Wednesday wondering what might happen to them. Once
transferred to the Courageous, the eight were scheduled to be interviewed by
officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI.
The FBI became involved when the flight was initially characterized as a
hijacking. Agents planned to interview the survivors, but indicated that there
may be nothing for them to investigate.
"A pilot cannot hijack his own plane," said FBI spokesman Judy
Orihuela. "We still need to interview the people before we can rule out a
hijacking, but it doesn't appear to be a hijacking."
In Key West, community activists including an attorney and a spokesman
for Elián González's Miami relatives arrived early Wednesday to
offer support. Meanwhile, others in Washington, D.C., encouraged U.S. officials
to grant asylum.
Throughout the day, it appeared the eight might face an uncertain future.
Normally, Cubans intercepted at sea are repatriated to Cuba unless, during
preliminary questioning by immigration officials, they express fear of
persecution if returned, said INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona.
That possibility contrasted with what some officials were told on
Tuesday, hours after the survivors were rescued.
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican who is among the
harshest critics of President Clinton's administration, said he was originally
told by Coast Guard officials that the survivors would be flown to Florida. A
short time later, the Coast Guard changed its plan and decided to fly only the
injured to Florida.
He initially criticized the Coast Guard, saying the agency had received
an order "from the highest office to send them back."
On Wednesday, Diaz-Balart kept fighting as comments filtered down from
Washington about the situation. None of the presidential candidates expressed an
opinion on what should be done with the survivors.
Diaz-Balart lobbied the Panamanian embassy to grant asylum to the
survivors and received approval. That came just a short time before the Coast
Guard agreed to bring the eight to Key West, said Ana Carbonell, Diaz-Balart's
district director.
"Their being granted refuge is a sigh of relief for the community,"
Carbonell said Wednesday night.
The announcement by the Coast Guard also signaled an end to more than 24
hours of concern for the survivors' friends and relatives. For much of the
ordeal, they had to rely on media reports.
According to reports, Hernandez left an airstrip at Los Palacios, west
of Havana, on Tuesday morning. He picked up his family and the others at an
airport in Pinar del Rio, before flying out over the open ocean.
At 8:45 a.m., Havana air traffic control notified Miami of the plane's
unauthorized departure. Fifteen minutes later, the plane disappeared from radar.
At one stage, Hernandez told Cuban authorities his plane was being
hijacked, but it appeared increasingly that he had used this as a cover while
willingly flying the plane away.
About 60 miles west of Cuba, running low on fuel, the plane circled the
Chios Dream before crashing into the sea nearby. They circled the ship nine
times to get its attention, then intentionally ditched the plane, hoping the
freighter could help them, said Arturo Cobo, an exile in Key West who spent an
hour with Fuentes in the hospital on Wednesday.
Although the Cuban government originally described the flight as a
hijacking, Cuba's senior diplomat in the United States said Wednesday that the
plane was stolen and, since those aboard had committed a crime, they should be
returned under existing immigration accords. That seemed unlikely, as Cuba and
the United States have no diplomatic relations.
The diplomat, Fernando Remirez, said the subject would come up during
meetings planned today between Cuba and the United States over immigration.
Hours after the crash, a doctor from the Tropicale, a Carnival cruise
ship, boarded the Chios Dream and tended to the injured.
Dr. Myron Binns, a Jamaican with a passing knowledge of Spanish, did not
immediately know the circumstances behind the injuries.
"Until it was all over, I didn't know they were from a plane and I
didn't know they were from Cuba," Binns said in a telephone interview from
the ship, moored in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. "I can't hold a social
conversation in Spanish."
Binns stitched a head wound on Fuentes and strapped the man to a body
board with a head brace to keep him immobilized because of an undetermined neck
injury.
Binns also tended to Fuentes' wife, Liliana Ponzoa, and another woman.
As he worked, the three children sat quietly, which made Binns start to
wonder what had happened.
"They were quiet and attentive, which is not the way the children on
the Tropicale are. It's a fun ship," he said. "It was obvious that the
kids had been through some ordeal."
Staff Writers Jose Dante Parra Herrera, Maya Bell, Michele Salcedo,
Vanessa Bauza and Tanya Weinberg contributed to this report, which was
supplemented with information from Sun-Sentinel wire services.
John W. Allman can be reached at jallman@sun-sentinel.com or at
954-767-4886.
Parole of Cubans into U.S. seen as political stroke for Gore
By DAVID CÁZARES Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 2:45 a.m.
Sep. 21, 2000
Until last night, the Clinton administration's policy of repatriating
Cubans picked up at sea -- long savaged by commentators and callers on
Spanish-language radio -- loomed as an overwhelming burden for Vice President Al
Gore.
The presidential contest between Gore, a Democrat, and Texas Gov. George
W. Bush, a Republican, was thought to be close in vote-rich Florida. But
Cuban-American opposition to the practice -- and the administration's handling
of the Elián González crisis -- was thought to bode poorly for
Gore's chances, particularly in South Florida.
With one bold stroke -- the decision to parole into the United States
nine Cubans whose plane crashed Tuesday into the sea -- administration officials
may have helped ease the Cuban-American community's pain over Elián's
return to Cuba. It also may deprive Bush of the opportunity to attack Gore on
the handling of the latest Cuban crisis.
Shortly after the news was announced, the decision drew fire from critics
who say the government acted for the wrong reasons.
"It had to be political; there's no other reason to do it,"
said Wayne Smith, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in
Washington, D.C., and former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
"They've looked at Florida and they think it's a battleground state,"
Smith said. "They seem to think that to win Florida you simply must pander
to the hardline exiles."
For Smith, allowing the refugees into the United States one day before
the United States and Cuba are to begin talks over immigration in New York sets
up potentially dangerous scenario.
"This could trigger another refugee crisis if the Cubans decide that
the Americans are not living up to the refugee agreement," Smith said. "They
could say why should we stop anyone from coming? If they aren't going to live up
to it, why should we?"
Even before the decision was announced, Cuba's senior diplomat in the
United States demanded that the nine Cubans who survived the crash of their
plane into the Gulf of Mexico be returned to Havana.
"There was a crime," said Deputy Minister Fernando Remirez. "They
stole the plane. So they should send these people back to Cuba according to
international agreements."
In Havana, the Comunist Party newspaper Granma devoted an entire page,
outlined in red, to the government's report on the incident.
Early in the day, before authorities decided to bring the Cubans to
shore, an elevator mechanic in Havana drew his hand over his chin as if he had a
beard, a Cuban reference to Castro.
"He's waiting to see if the U.S. returns them. Giving Clinton a
chance, like with Elián. If they don't, he'll be calling us to
demonstrate by Friday."
In Florida, Cuban Americans likely will be grateful for the decision on
the refugees, a fact that could benefit Gore, said Marsha Matson, an instructor
of political science at the University of Miami. Bush's ability to attack Gore
for his handling of Cuban crises would be limited, she said.
"It would certainly help Gore by keeping him from having to respond
to questions about this and it would soothe a lot of bad feelings that arose in
the Elián González affair," Matson said.
One influential Cuban-American Democrat, however, doubts that politics
was involved in a decision by the U.S. Coast Guard to bring the refugees to
shore.
"This is a pure humanitarian gesture," said Augustin Garcia,
vice chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
Garcia, who was part of a delegation of Cuban exile leaders and attorneys
that went to the Florida Keys on Wednesday with offers of help for the refugees,
also doubts that Gore will take advantage of the latest crisis. Gore has too
much character to do so, he said.
For Garcia, the decision nevertheless represents good news for Democrats
because it shows they care enough to make a humanitarian decision.
"I am honored at this time to be part of the party," Garcia
said. "This country still stands for freedom and justice."
The problem for Gore, though, is that any administration attempt to reach
out to Cubans on his behalf or otherwise could backfire with other voters.
"As we saw during the Elián González episode, others
totally disagree and are turned off by the idea that these people control
things," Smith said. "It could well be that you turn off other people
in the state. Do they think that the Cuban American community have the only
votes?"
Some say that it would be naive to think Gore has much of a chance to win
substantial Cuban-American votes -- even if the decision on the refugees was
made with those voters in mind.
"All the polls that I've seen show that Cubans are not going to vote
for Al Gore -- period," said former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre. "It's
just not going to happen."
"My analysis is I think he'd lose more votes than he obtains from
that," Ferre said. "There are a lot of people who get very upset when
preferential treatment is given to Cubans."
However, if the administration was making a humanitarian gesture, Ferre
said, "I can't argue against that."
But as the Clinton administration prepared for the newest round of
migration talks with Cuba, U.S. officials had to weigh the risks of setting off
another international dispute over immigration against the risk of sparking more
turmoil in South Florida.
In Miami this week, Spanish-language radio was filled with tough talk, as
a stream of callers expressed their ire at the federal government for its policy
of repatriating to Cuba refugees picked up at sea.
Staff Writer Tanya Weinberg contributed to this report, which was
supplemented with information from Sun-Sentinel wire services
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