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The Miami Herald.
Pilot risked defection for his family
By Carolyn Salazar. csalazar@herald.com. Posted on Mon,
Nov. 18, 2002 in The Miami Herald.
All his life, Nemecio Carlos Alonso Guerra hid a secret. One he never shared
with his family or closest friends.
A loyal member of Cuba's Communist Party, a hard-liner who publicly scorned
those who fled the island, Alonso Guerra says he secretly despised his country's
socialist system and longed for the day he could offer his children a different
future, the day he could freely speak his mind without fear of being tossed in
jail.
At a family party for his daughter-in-law a week ago today, Alonso Guerra
for the first time disclosed his secret -- just hours before boarding the
single-engine Russian Antonov An-2 Colt he flew to Key West.
In his first interview since arriving last week, Alonso Guerra, 48, said he
diverted the plane to offer freedom to those he cared about.
With him on the flight were seven others: his girlfriend, Mercedes Valdes;
her son, Bernardo Amaran; Alonso Guerra's son, Carlos Isobel Alonso, 28; his
son's wife, Mayriliam Orama, 26; his son's daughter, Bruni Alonso Orama, 2;
Orama's sister, Marisleidy Orama, 19; and Marisleidy's husband, Aldo Gutierrez.
Before the flight to Key West, Alonso Guerra flew the plane for the Cuban
government that served as a cargo aircraft and crop-duster.
Sitting on a blue couch in the living room of a relative's apartment in
Hialeah, Alonso Guerra recounted the fateful journey.
''I had been thinking about it for a long, long time,'' he said. "I
never talked about it because I know if I did, I could have been sent to jail.
All I was waiting for was the right time, the right circumstances and the right
situation.''
That right moment was 10:35 a.m. Nov. 11.
He spent the previous day at work flying his plane in western Cuba from Los
Palacios, where he fumigated crops in surrounding towns, to Pinar del Río,
where he parked the plane.
He then drove to his girlfriend's house, where he called his relatives --
including his two youngest daughters -- to invite them over for his
daughter-in-law's party.
He said he waited for his daughters to arrive, but they didn't make it
because their car broke down.
When everyone else was gathered, Alonso Guerra broke the news. People were
first surprised, then elated. They were surprised because of his previous
outspokenness against defectors.
He got everyone to stay at his girlfriend's house until the next morning to
avoid detection by the authorities.
In the morning, they drove to the airport in Pinar del Río, ran about
30 feet to the aircraft and boarded without incident.
Alonso Guerra then managed to take off without any interference and flew
north toward Key West.
At some point over the Florida Straits, U.S. fighter jets rose to meet the
flight and directed Alonso Guerra to land in Key West.
The Cubans were held by immigration authorities until Friday.
The Cuban government has criticized Washington for allowing the release of
the eight Cubans, deploring the flight as a defiant act of piracy. Cuban Vice
President Carlos Lage told leaders of 21 nations on Saturday at the
Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic that allowing the Cubans to
remain in Florida encouraged "terrorism against Cuba.''
''The crime of air piracy, which is recognized in all international
conventions as an act of terrorism, is encouraged by the government of the
United States in its war against Cuba,'' said Lage, a top leader in both the
government and the Communist Party.
Alonso Guerra portrayed the journey differently.
''I didn't steal the plane. I diverted it,'' he said. "I was working a
little longer, made the flight a little longer and diverted the plane a bit.
That's not stealing.''
His only regret: leaving behind his two youngest daughters, who he said were
scheduled to be on the aircraft with him and the others. The daughters are
staying with his estranged wife in Cuba.
Now, he says, he wants to bring his daughters to the United States to join
him.
''That's what I want most in this world,'' he said.
Alonso Guerra became an airplane technician in 1978, when he was 16. He
repaired aircraft and received flight training for eight years before becoming a
pilot instructor at the former Carlos Ulloa aviation school.
Several years later he began working as a pilot for the Cuban government,
mostly on fumigation missions and delivering the country's newspapers to small
towns. He said his 24-year experience in the aviation industry and his deep
knowledge of the Russian aircraft he frequently flew gave him confidence to put
his girlfriend and family on the plane.
''No, I wasn't scared,'' he said. "I've never been scared of anything
in my life.''
His goals now are to fly crop-duster planes again and bring his daughters
here.
''That would make me the happiest man in the world,'' he said.
Cuban family's flight to freedom 'a birthday present'
By Tere Figueras And Sofia Santana. tfigueras@herald.com.
Posted on Sat, Nov. 16, 2002.
Nemecio Carlos Alonso Guerra called his daughter-in-law at 11 p.m. Sunday.
'He said, 'I'm going to give you a birthday present you will never forget in
your entire life,' '' said Mayriliam Orama, who turned 26 on Monday.
That day, she tossed a few clothes into a blue backpack, and with her
husband and 2-year-old daughter slipped into the airport in Pinar del Río.
They ran about 30 feet to a stolen Cuban plane with her father-in-law, a Cuban
government pilot, in the cockpit. At 10:35 a.m. the plane took off, carrying its
eight occupants to Key West and freedom.
''Nobody saw us. Nobody bothered us,'' said Mayriliam's sister, Mayrisleidy
Orama, 19.
''We didn't even have time to pray until we were in the air,'' Mayriliam
said. "This was truly the best birthday present. I'll never forget it.''
The eight were detained by immigration officials shortly after their plane,
escorted by U.S. fighter jets, touched down in Key West. They were finally
released Friday night to waiting family and friends in Miami after a checkup at
the county health department and stops at charitable organizations where they
filled out paperwork for work permits.
''Kiss the ground! Kiss the ground!'' the crowd shouted outside the Catholic
Charities building on Southwest Eighth Street and 25th Avenue as Alonso Guerra
and passenger Mercedes Valdés walked out before 9 p.m. Friday.
'WE'RE HERE!'
''Finally! We're here! We're here!'' Valdés shouted, as she and
Alonso Guerra were rushed to a waiting red Dodge Caravan parked just outside the
building.
The pair made their way through a throng of TV cameras and reporters and
into the van, where they were joined by four others -- friends and relatives,
who declined to speak to the media other than to shout words of praise and
relief: "They're here! They made it!''
Under U.S. policy, Cubans who reach American soil -- whether by sea or air
-- are quickly paroled into the community. After a year, they can apply for
permanent residency.
The Cuban government, meanwhile, has called the daring trip an act of
''piracy'' and has demanded the return of the plane, and its passengers.
The trip was hastily conceived and full of danger, the Orama sisters said.
''It was all at the last minute,'' Mayrisleidy Orama said.
They were greeted Friday by long-lost relatives who knew of the sisters only
through e-mails and photos.
''Welcome to America,'' said their white-haired great-uncle Carlos Marquez,
an American flag pinned to his lapel. Marquez left Cuba more than 30 years ago.
Mayriliam Orama is a professor of economics at a Cuban university, she said.
''She's a professor, so she's one of the few who can use a computer in Cuba.
We got to know each other through e-mails,'' said cousin Gladys Marquez of
Miami. "But I never knew she was coming until I heard about it in the news
and I called Cuba.''
Mayriliam's husband, Carlos Isobel Alonso, is an engineer and son of the
pilot who flew the Russian-built aircraft to Key West. The couple brought with
them their 2-year-old daughter Bruni Alonso Orama. ''She's wiped out,'' Carlos
Alonso said, holding the girl outside Church World Services at 5040 NW Seventh
St.
The two sisters left behind their doting aunt, who had cared for them since
the death of their mother. The aunt's blood pressure had shot dangerously high
after word spread through Pinar del Río that a stolen plane was headed
for the United States.
'WORST IS OVER'
''I told her the worst is over. They're here. They're free,'' Gladys Marquez
said.
Family and friends of Aldo Gutiérrez -- Mayrisleidy's husband --
described him as a hard-working accountant who lived a comfortable life.
''They weren't dying of hunger. They just wanted liberty and to be free of
the hypocrisy that they face every day,'' said cousin Roberto Gutiérrez,
who left the island a few years ago.
His uncle, Aldo's father, got permission from the Cuban government to visit
Miami last year. He confided his fears about his son.
'He said, 'Roberto, we have to get Aldito out of Cuba whatever way possible.
I'm scared he's going to throw himself in the ocean,' '' Roberto Gutiérrez
recalled.
Other friends had already made the dangerous trip across the Florida
Straits. Jesús Joel Palacio -- who played dominoes with Aldo in their
hometown -- spent three days at sea aboard a raft six months ago.
''Leaving is something that nobody talks about but everybody wants to do,''
Palacio said. "He did it a little more dramatically. I was escorted by
sharks. He was escorted by F-16s. '' | 
