By Maria Alvarez. New
York Post. Thursday, September 21,2000
Fleeing Cuba by air or sea is a perilous adventure, but refugees who've made
the dangerous crossing in relic planes and makeshift boats say it's a worthwhile
risk for those who crave freedom.
"It's a great sacrifice," said Arianne Horta, 22, who survived the
shipwreck last year with famed Cuban raft boy Elian Gonzalez.
But Horta paid a high price. She left her 6-year-old daughter, Estefani,
behind in Cuba after their ill-fated boat broke down in her first attempt to
flee.
The overloaded aluminum outboard boat carrying 13 people was quickly
repaired and set out for the journey a second time. But only Elian, Horta and
her boyfriend, Nivaldo Fernandez, survived the stormy trip.
"I don't regret coming here," said Horta, who now works at a car
dealership in Miami. "My only pain is that my daughter cannot be with me."
"I'm sure those people on that plane wanted to escape - there is no
doubt in my mind. Fleeing Cuba is a life-taking risk and one you think out
thoroughly," said Horta, who wants to bring her daughter to the U.S. once
she becomes a resident.
"I feel very much for them," said Horta of the survivors of the
downed plane this week. "They shouldn't be made to go back if they do not
want to."
Ex-Cuban pilot Orestes Lorenzo Perez, who made the daring crossing by air
twice, said "it's a desperation for freedom" that drives thousands to
risk the hazardous conditions.
Lorenzo said the Cubans who boarded the relic crop-duster plane knew they
were taking their lives in their hands.
"The plane used was the most primitive," said Lorenzo, who doubts
the plane's compass was even operational to record a near-accurate direction.
Lorenzo left Cuba in 1991. He stole a Russian MiG fighter to fly to the
U.S., then returned to Cuba a year later in a Cessna to retrieve his wife and
two sons in a daring daytime landing on a Havana beach.
Lorenzo said that without proper instrumentation, the crop-duster plane was
ill-equipped for the over-the-water trip.
"The pilot would have had to calculate the speed, the wind and miles
manually.
"Those planes are also not equipped for over the water," he said. "Pilots
who usually fly crop-duster planes navigate visually by terrain. When you are
over water there are no reference points."
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