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By Sofia Santana And Luisa Yanez. Ssantana@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Aug. 28, 2002 in The
Miami Herald.
Days after the bodies of four Cuban migrants were recovered in the Gulf
Stream, investigators said Tuesday that they are making progress identifying the
victims and uncovering the smuggling ring that was sneaking them to Florida.
About two dozen migrants, including women and young children, reportedly
left Cuba in a 24-foot boat in the dark of night on Aug. 18. They haven't been
heard from since.
The Deceased Alien Response Team, made up of Coast Guard, Border Patrol, FBI
and local officials, spent the day interviewing worried relatives who fear their
loved ones were lost at sea. The team is also trying to bust the operation
behind those deaths -- and others like it.
''This is starting to look like an organized alien-smuggling operation,''
said Border Patrol spokesman Keith Roberts. "We have a lot of good leads
and it's starting to snowball together.''
Not knowing exactly what happened to their relatives on the perilous journey
has many in Cuba and South Florida distraught.
''We don't know anything,'' said Fortun Cordova, 66, from his home 30 miles
northeast of Havana.
He and his wife were desperate for news of his two sons, Alexis, 32, and
Arley, 23.
''There are rumors and different versions of what happened,'' Cordova said. "People
tell us things, but for now we still don't know what happened.''
Griselia Dopico, the grief-stricken mother of the missing men, holds onto
fading hopes.
''They must be on board a ship somewhere,'' she said. "This is
horrible, horrible!''
The bodies of four victims, all decomposed, were recovered over the weekend
-- three off Fort Pierce and one off Cape Canaveral. They were floating in the
fast-moving northbound current of the Gulf Stream, the Coast Guard said.
Juan Carlos Alfonso of Miami said he knows his wife and three daughters were
on the boat.
He was among several South Floridians who rushed to coroners' offices in
Cocoa Beach and Fort Pierce to see if the victims -- two men, one woman and a
set of partial remains -- were their missing family members.
NOT IDENTIFIED
The bodies have not yet been officially identified by investigators.
But Alfonso said he recognized the clothes on a small body in the Cocoa
Beach coroner's office as those belonging to one of his daughters.
''I knew it was her because I bought the clothes here and sent them to her
in Cuba,'' he sobbed during an interview on WSVC-Channel 51. "I called Cuba
and was told she left wearing the clothes I bought her.
"I have lost my girls. My God, what I'm going to do now?''
A man who refused to give his name said another of the victims was his
brother, Manuel Cabrera, 52. He said he recognized a watch, ring and necklace
with a crucifix his brother wore.
''They only had half of his body,'' the man said somberly.
Many relatives knew the group was coming. When the migrants didn't arrive by
last Thursday -- four days after leaving Cuba -- family members called the Coast
Guard in Miami.
An air and sea search mission was immediately launched, but the Coast Guard
could not find the boat despite covering 25,000 square miles of ocean. The
effort was officially called off Sunday night.
The migrant group, believed to be one of the largest to perish crossing the
Florida Straits, reportedly left from Bahia Honda in Pinar del Río
province on Sunday, Aug. 18, the Coast Guard said.
The group was reportedly picked up by the smuggling boat that, according to
relatives, left Key West the day before.
DOOMED VOYAGE
The ill-fated trip was the latest in a string of smuggling operations turned
tragic. Last November 29 migrants, including 12 children, drowned when their
boat capsized in the straits southeast of Key West. That group reportedly also
came from the Bahía Honda area.
The Coast Guard regularly receives telegram-like bulletins from Cuba about
boats spotted leaving the island, said agency spokesman Luis Diaz. They got one
about a smuggler's boat seen leaving the island on Aug. 18, he said.
''This is another case where it obviously turned out bad for the
smugglers,'' Diaz said. "It looks like they even lost their lives here.''
The head of Brothers to the Rescue, the Miami-based exile group that flies
search sorties for migrants in the waters off South Florida, says he hopes more
Cubans won't risk their lives leaving the island that way.
''[The smugglers] use boats that are not good for crossing,'' said José
Basulto, the group's president. "The boat may be good for two people, but
it acts differently when there's 25 people in it.
"That's when they get in trouble. They're killing people and killing
themselves by doing this.''
Herald translator Renato Perez and Herald wire services contributed to this
report. | 
