Yahoo! January 25, 2001
Dead Stowaway's Mother Tells Story
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 24 (AP) - Felix Julian Garcia tried three times to leave Cuba
illegally. Twice he was jailed; the third try cost him his life.
Garcia was killed on Aug. 21, 1999 by subfreezing temperatures and lack of
oxygen in the landing gear of a Boeing 777 jetliner bound for London. His frozen
body was found by authorities in the British capital when the jet arrived.
The young man's death and the repatriation of his remains a month later were
not noted in the state media, which last week provided broad coverage of two
teen-age military cadets who died the same way. Instead Lucia Garcia buried her
son silently, accompanied by state security agents.
"It's an open wound,'' Garcia, 46, said of the death of her son, who
was 28. "I have not become a person again.''
Holding a picture of Felix in his casket, she told The Associated Press
Tuesday that her son's burial was "the funeral of an opponent - the police
said so.'' She said her son never made a secret of his opposition to the
government.
"His big problem was that he could not stand this system,'' Garcia said
of her son, who first tried to leave the island illegally when he was 19.
Felix Garcia made his first attempt to leave Cuba by sea, but was arrested
on the shore by Cuban authorities. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
Shortly after his release, he set sail again. He was arrested again, this
time at sea, and sentenced to 11/2 years.
Garcia said she thought that after two failed attempts her son had given up
on trying to leave Cuba illegally. He was working at a textile factory in
Santiago de las Vegas, southeast of Havana.
And while she prefers not to comment on law or politics, she said if his
death had been covered in the media - "even something little'' - perhaps
the two cadets who died in the wheel well of a London-bound jetliner on
Christmas Eve would not have taken the risk.
The repatriation of the bodies of Alberto Vazquez, 17, and Maikel Fonseca,
16, last week and their subsequent funerals received wide media coverage in
Cuba.
President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) convoked a massive march last week
to protest the deaths, blaming them on U.S. immigration policies he says
encourage Cubans to undertake risky journeys.
The government launched a campaign more than a year ago to protest the Cuban
Adjustment Act, a 1966 law that allows Cubans who reach American soil to apply
for U.S. residency.
The campaign began with the seven-month battle for the repatriation of Elian
Gonzalez, who survived an illegal departure at sea that killed his mother and 10
others. Elian, now 7, returned to the island with his father in late June but
the campaign against U.S. policies has continued.
Communist leaders said last week that the cadets who died should not be
considered traitors, but rather victims of what they call the "murderous
law.''
Garcia believes the cases should have been treated the same.
"If we are to keep quiet and say that people who leave don't die this
way, then fine, everyone keep quiet,'' she said.
"But if these things are to be known, then let's know about everyone,
regardless of their position,'' she said during a walk to the cemetery in
Santiago de las Vegas where she buried her son - the eldest of her four
children.
"I don't understand this - why?'' the mother asked. "They were all
human beings.''
PBS Plans Elian Gonzalez Documentary
MIAMI (AP) - PBS's news series "Frontline'' examines the Elian Gonzalez
saga and its effect on South Florida in an hour-long documentary called "Saving
Elian,'' airing next month.
The program uses news video footage shot in Cuba and the United States to
retrace the seven-month custody battle that began Thanksgiving Day 1999, when
Elian was found off the Florida coast after a boat wreck that killed his mother
and 10 other people. It depicts South Florida as an ethnically fragmented
community whose divisions were exacerbated by the fight over the Cuban boy.
"In my heart I feel that Elian belongs with his father, but I know that
if I go to Little Havana and I say exactly what I feel ... I am going to be very
disliked,'' says Eloisa Echazabal, one of a handful of Cuban-Americans
interviewed who said Elian's place was with his father. Each had misgivings
about expressing their views to other Cubans.
The documentary's interviews provide a range of opinions on the
international custody case, but neither Cuban government officials nor any of
Elian's relatives agreed to speak to "Frontline.''
"Saving Elian'' airs at 10 p.m. EST Feb. 6 on PBS.
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