Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Flow of Cuban Refugees To Florida Is Increasing;2,205 Have Made 90-Mile Voyage
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 09:14:31 EST
Message-ID: <33.1992Nov1.091431@AmeriCast.com>

Flow of Cuban Refugees To Florida Is Increasing;2,205 Have Made
90-Mile Voyage This Year<By William Booth<Washington Post Staff
Writer<

KEY WEST, Fla. - The number of refugees making the perilous ocean
voyage from Cuba to Florida has reached its highest level since
the massive Mariel boatlift of 1980, when 125,000 Cubans came to
the United States.

As of Thursday, Coast Guard officials said, 2,205 Cubans had tak-
en to the waters in inner tubes and small boats this year, a
record since Mariel, when Cuban President Fidel Castro allowed
hundreds of thousands of Cubans, some criminals and others men-
tally ill, to leave the communist-ruled island.

Those fleeing Cuba now are mostly young, blue-collar men. Among
the newly arrived Wednesday was Jorge Ivan Lacera, a 30-year-old
mechanic, who brought his wife, Susana, and their 5-year-old son,
Dani.

"Look, look at that little boy!" said Arturo Cobo, director of
the Temporary Home for Cuban Refugees, a halfway house in Key
West. "Can you imagine how desperate a man must be to put his
wife and his only son in an inner tube and throw themselves into
the sea? That is desperation, my friend."

Lacera said his family left Tuesday evening, traveling in a
Soviet-made inflatable boat with nine others. They had dyed their
clothes black to evade Cuban patrol boats and steered with a com-
pass and by the stars.

They were spotted the next morning by Brothers to the Rescue, a
volunteer group of pilots who fly small private planes over the
Straits of Florida to search for "rafters," as the oceangoing re-
fugees are called.

The pilots dropped notes, welcoming the Cubans to "the land of
liberty," pinpointing their location and telling them that the
Coast Guard was on the way. The pilots circled the inflatable
boat for hours until a Coast Guard vessel arrived.

Most of the current surge of rafters are picked up in the Florida
Straits by the Coast Guard before they reach the Keys. The
rafters paddle or drift, because few of the boats have engines.
Many arrive here at the refugee center burned red from the sun,
dehydrated from seasickness, their clothes stiff with salt.

However, some make it all the way, across 90 miles of open ocean.
On Wednesday, four men in a fishing boat motored into a marina at
Marathon in the mid-Keys. Two of the men had pointed a .25-
caliber automatic at the captain, who was a lifelong family
friend, and hijacked the boat.

"We just told him, 'We're going to Miami,' " said Ernesto de
Leon, 49, an unemployed fisherman accompanied by his 22-year-old
son, Ariel.

"I would not have shot him," de Leon said of their friend the
boat captain. "But I would have hit him very hard."

A handful of the record number of refugees have been smuggled
into the country by being dropped off on deserted islands.  Ear-
lier this month, a group of 12 waded ashore at the foot of
boisterous Duval Street, after being dumped off by smugglers.

Coast Guard officials estimate that no more than 5 percent are
smuggled in, based on interviews and the condition of the re-
fugees when they are picked up. Refugee workers here agree smug-
gling occurs, but they say it is uncommon.

The hijackers, who were freed by U.S. authorities, were among 42
who arrived Wednesday night at Key West.  The 42 came in four
rafts made of inner tubes; one rubberized raft with a cranky out-
board motor; one small boat with no engine; and the hijacked 24-
foot fishing boat.

The oldest was 49; the youngest 2. On Thursday, a 5-day-old in-
fant - the youngest to make the journey - was among another group
of eight found 15 miles east of Miami.

At the refugee center in Key West late Wednesday, Lacera and his
family arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. La-
cera said he had no money and carried no mementos of his life in
Cuba. He was exhausted, sunburned and still wet. His wife
shivered under a blanket.

Speaking through an interpreter, Lacera said he came to the Unit-
ed States because there was nothing left for him to live for in
Cuba: no work, no future, no amenities. Everything was a strug-
gle. There were snitches and spies and repression, he said.

"There is nothing in Cuba," Lacera said. "Nothing.  Everyone
wants to leave . . . but you must be careful who you tell your
feelings to."

Migrants from Cuba are considered political refugees by the U.S.
government, and so their experience upon arrival is far different
from that of many new arrivals, particularly Haitians, who also
take to the seas in small, often overcrowded boats.

Because the Haitians are considered economic, rather than politi-
cal, refugees, they are picked up at sea and immediately returned
by the Coast Guard to Haiti. They no longer are being interviewed
by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, although they can
go to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and apply for political
asylum.  Some 711 Haitians were interdicted at sea and returned
to their country in October, while 199 Cubans were picked up and
given asylum. Advocates for the Haitians insist there is a double
standard.

The Cubans are processed by the INS in Key West and then immedi-
ately released.

"It's nothing more than filling out a biographical sketch," said
Richard Kellner, acting district director of the INS in Miami.
After the interview, "they can do whatever they want at that
point," Kellner said. "They're free to go."

The Cubans are helped by volunteer organizations that give them
clothes and food, and help them with paperwork.

Groups such as the Catholic Conference and Church World Service
help them locate their families, assist with Social Security
cards, work papers, food stamps, Medicaid, motel rooms and food,
and give them $200 cash to start their life here.

On the morning after Lacera and his family arrived, they appeared
at the halfway house, as if transformed. Susana wore a short blue
skirt, a pink T-shirt and red flats. Jorge wore tropical-print
shorts. Dani played with a toy truck. They looked like tanned,
prosperous tourists on holiday.

Soon, their names were called for boarding a Greyhound bus to
Miami, to unite with relatives.

Susana kissed Aleida Cobo, who helps her husband help the re-
fugees, thanking her. Aleida wept. "I still have family in Cuba,"
she said. "This is very emotional for me."

And then the Laceras waved goodbye and left.02:33 11-01C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)