Posted on 11/27/2001 2:25:00 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
``How is it possible that an immigration official said at 11 in the morning that they are there, safe and alive, and at noon says something else?'' asked David Castro, who is waiting for word about his daughter, Yaquelín Castro, and granddaughter, Claudia Montané Castro, 8. ``There is something dirty going on here.'' He pleaded for American investigators to get to the bottom of it.
Panamanian authorities Monday denied reports that 30 Cubans missing 10 days at sea had been rescued by a Panama-registered vessel.
The 30 Cubans set off from the Cuban coast, near Bahía Honda, on Nov. 17, with Florida as their destination. But the migrants, the Miami man who allegedly smuggled them, and the dozen children they brought along never arrived. A capsized 30-foot boat with no registration numbers was found three days later 40 miles south of Key West.
But hope rose Friday when Hialeah's Carlos Baldriche, whose younger brother Yoel is among the missing, said his father in Cuba heard that one of the missing had phoned from Panama. The voyagers, the rumor mill had it, were plucked from the waters by a passing ship.
In an interview Monday morning with KW-Continente Radio in Panama City, Panama's immigration services spokesman, David Gutiérrez, said the group had been rescued, and gave reassurance that they were all in good shape. He later said he had no information about the missing Cubans, and denied ever confirming the rescue.
``They are not in Panama,'' Gutiérrez told The Herald. ``That I know.''
But worried relatives in Miami are convinced the voyagers are in Panama, and that somebody there is covering up.
``How is it possible that an immigration official said at 11 in the morning that they are there, safe and alive, and at noon says something else?'' asked David Castro, who is waiting for word about his daughter, Yaquelín Castro, and granddaughter, Claudia Montané Castro, 8. ``There is something dirty going on here.''
He pleaded for American investigators to get to the bottom of it.
The U.S. Embassy in Panama City said it had no information on the case, and the State Department said it was unable to confirm the report. A spokesperson for the Border Patrol did not respond to telephone messages.
Officials at the Cuban Embassy said they too heard Gutiérrez's morning radio interview and puzzling retraction.
``I have not heard from any authority with real information that includes who, what, where, when, why or any of the five w's,'' said Cuban Embassy spokesman Alexis Frutos.
Cuba's official newspaper, Granma, said it appeared to be a ``vulgar and cruel trick.''
A spokesman for Panama's Ministry of Government and Justice, which oversees the immigration services, said the report was false. José Isaza, director of Panama's Maritime Services, also said it was simply not true.
``These people have not arrived at any port in the Republic of Panama,'' Isaza said.
Maritime Services spokesman Jaime Beitia said if true, the ship's captain would have been obligated to report it to the nearest port.
Beitia said he personally called every major port on Panama's Atlantic Coast to no avail.
``How do I explain something that never happened?'' Beitia asked.
``Reporters asked me to go on TV and radio to give interviews about this. I wouldn't do it. I didn't want to give false hope to Miami's Cuban community.
``If this was true, we would have no reason to hide it.''
Sunday, November 25, 2001 (Sunday November 25, 200l) Miami Herald Cuba uses boat tragedy in anti-U.S. campaign-- Herald Staff and Wire Reports [Full Text]
Showing footage of weeping relatives, the Cuban government used the apparent deaths of 30 migrants at sea to revive its campaign against an American law that it says encourages people to make risky sea voyages.
``I had faith they were going to arrive,'' a sobbing Caridad Amaya said in one of numerous interviews shown Friday on state television. Amaya's daughter, son-in-law and 8-year-old granddaughter were believed to be on the boat that capsized a week ago in the Florida Straits, leaving no known survivors.
Cuban media cited the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans who reach American soil to avoid repatriation and apply for U.S. residency.
The ``murderous Cuban Adjustment Act . . . caused the death of 30 Cuban citizens, many of them children,'' the Communist Party daily Granma declared. A dozen or more children were among the missing.
``One has to ask the government of the United States how many more children have to die,'' Arleen Rodriguez, editor of Tricontinental magazine, said on the government's daily Round Table TV program.
The migrants' relatives in South Florida reported the group left Cuba in a speedboat Nov. 16 and were expected in the United States the following day.
U.S. authorities last week found a capsized white 30-foot, twin-engine craft they believe was carrying the 30 Cubans.
The Cuban government late Friday identified the owner and operator of the boat as Lázaro Alberto Men Camero of Miami. The Herald could not find Florida records on anyone with that name.
The Border Patrol could not be reached Saturday for comment on the investigation.
If confirmed, the toll would constitute the single deadliest smuggling tragedy out of Cuba.
(November 23, 2001) Most Latins disapprove of Castro, survey says--[Excerpt] The finding comes days before this weekend's Ibero-American Summit in Peru, a forum where Castro has often attracted the lion's share of the attention from the media -- and from other participants, in some cases -- in spite of representing a country at variance with the prevailing democratic currents in the region. Saladrigas said he hoped that knowledge of the poll would prod Latin American leaders to take a more outspoken position against Castro and the Cuban government. [End Excerpt]
(November 23, 2001) Castro Bags Ibero-American Summit in Peru with last-minute letter-- [Excerpt] The summit could raise prickly issues for Cuba, one of seven nations blacklisted by the United States as alleged sponsors of terrorism -- and put Castro in a diplomatic bind as leaders rally for a push against terror. [End Excerpt]
The problem with this news item is that David Gutierrez is not the immigration spokesperson...
From the November 27 La Prensa, it seems that:
1. The group was rescued in international waters by a Panama-flag ship in international waters of the Gulf of Mexico,
2. USCG found a capsized boat and started a search off Florida which ended on November 18,
3. The Panama-flag ship has not stopped in Panama at the time of the article.
Sounds like foul play here.... Info is sketchy, thanks for the heads up. Keep an eye out for further developments in:
Cuba Free Press Forum
Free Cuba Foundation Forum
Pro-Democracy Movements Ring
In an apparently unrelated issue, the Castroist regime arrested a Panamanian businessman for "spying".
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