Cubans made Chevy a cradle for their hopesBY

They were family, friends and neighbors who lived on the same block just outside Havana. For weeks, they labored on a daring secret plan to flee to the United States.But even before they set off, suspicious Cuban police got wind of their plan.

The officers searched the homes of the 12 -- nine men, two women and a child -- looking for oars, a boat, sails, anything that would finger the group as would-be rafters. They found nothing.They never thought to look at the truck.''It was right there in front of them,'' said Marcial Basanta López, chuckling as he remembered the heart-stopping search.Two days later, Basanta and his neighbors boarded their last hope for a new life: A 1951 Chevy truck, customized for the first-ever road trip across the Florida Straits.

The image of the battered flatbed -- chugging along on a bed of floating steel drums and powered by makeshift propellers -- captured headlines and imaginations in South Florida and across the country last week. By the time the pictures hit U.S. newspapers and TV networks, the group of 12 -- intercepted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, the ingenious contraption destroyed and sunk in a volley of machine gun fire -- was back in Cuba.NOW WORSE OFFNow, a week after their return, Basanta told The Herald in a phone call from his home in the neighborhood of San Miguel del Padrón, they have no money, no truck and precious little hope.

His only comfort: that he lived to tell his wife and two children the tale of the beat-up Chevy and how it came to spend more than 24 hours at sea.It began as the fantasy of two men -- Basanta and his childhood friend, Luis Gras -- who drove their beat-up trucks around Havana, doing odd jobs to feed their families.The flatbeds were just two of the diesel-powered dinosaurs that travel the streets of Cuba, kept alive by resourceful mechanics who barter parts and scrounge for fuel. For a few bucks, preferably American, Gras would shuttle people or furniture across town in the green Chevrolet.Basanta, a 33-year-old former tae kwon do champion who dedicated his youth to winning medals for his country, provided the same shuttle service with his red 1952 Ford truck. A glitch in paperwork, however, put the Ford out of commission and sent Basanta's life into a tailspin.

''I went to renew the tag, and they said the papers had disappeared. And I couldn't drive it without documentation,'' Basanta said. ``I couldn't make money.''Basanta said he and Gras were trying to think of ways to make a living or leave the island when they hit on the idea of making the properly documented Chevy into a floating flatbed.After all, they reasoned, they were veteran tinkerers, with years of practice patching up their ancient trucks.

They had certainly heard of Cubans taking to the straits in far less seaworthy vessels.''We also wanted to call attention, to get noticed,'' said Basanta, who said the group hoped that, even if intercepted at sea, the sight of an unsinkable Chevy truck would be novel enough to earn the Cubans a pass into the United States.

''So we started getting what we needed, working in secret, hiding,'' Basanta said. A few of their neighbors, equally broke, were brought into the scheme. They began selling their belongings to buy pieces of scrap iron, life jackets and fuel.''We each gave what we could, little by little,'' Basanta said. ``We got someone to make the propellers out of metal, but everything in secret, always.

''READY FOR VOYAGE. Two days after the police officers burst in, Basanta, Gras and the rest were ready.Gras decided he would take his wife, Ixorita, and their toddler son on the voyage.Basanta insisted that his wife and their children, an 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, stay behind.''There were concerns about capacity on the truck, but also I felt it was too much of a risk,'' Basanta said. ``I would go over there and work and send money back. That was our hope.

''Shortly before 3 a.m. July 16, a Wednesday, the green Chevy made its way through the streets of San Miguel del Padrón on its way to a strip of beach.''When we got to the coast, the border guards looked to see if we had a vessel,'' Basanta said. ``All they saw was the truck.''They drove past the guards and quickly unloaded segments of the makeshift pontoon -- designed to float the truck above engine-crippling saltwater -- assembled it on the beach, and pushed the truck into the water.

It was a few minutes before people on shore noticed.''That's when the guards realized what we were doing,'' Basanta said. ``They ran toward us and shot flare-guns at the truck. But we were already gone.''Powered by a propeller attached to the drive shaft and two others mounted on the rear axle, the truck churned the dark waters. No one followed. By daybreak, they were well on their way, seasick but hopeful. Luckily, they had managed to acquire 12 doses of motion sickness medicine.`A PERFECT DAY'''The only one of us who wasn't sick injected us with the medicine, one after the other,'' Basanta said. ``The weather was perfect, the truck was running. It was a perfect day.''The plan was to hit dry land, pop off the propellers and keep the Chevy going.''They could have driven all the way up here to Lake Worth,'' said Kiriat López, a cousin of Basanta's who lives in Palm Beach County.

``They had enough gas to get to Hong Kong.''Basanta agreed: ``We left the tires on. We could have kept going.''López, an air conditioning mechanic who arrived eight years ago from Cuba, was expecting them. But after a few days with no word, López and his wife, JoAnn, were consumed with worry.

''When we didn't hear from them, I thought they were dead,'' JoAnn López said. 'But Kiriat kept saying, `I know he's alive; I know they're okay.' ''Her husband was right. The crew aboard the Chevy was alive -- but by the end of the first day at sea, the Cubans had been spotted by U.S. authorities about 40 miles off Key West.

A government plane flew over the bright green and yellow flatbed, which was puttering along at 8 mph. A few hours later, two Coast Guard vessels appeared.One of the Coast Guard patrol boats pulled alongside the Chevy. A Spanish-speaking officer told the truck's passengers they were trying to enter the United States illegally, Basanta said.

''Then he said we could do things the easy way or the hard way,'' Basanta said. The presence of Gras' little boy convinced the Cubans not to resist.Clinching the deal: Basanta said the Coast Guard officer promised the truck would be towed back to Cuba if the group was repatriated.

''We told them the truck was private property, that it was all we had,'' Basanta said.

Shortly after boarding the Coast Guard vessel, the 12 Cubans were given earplugs.''They told us to cover our ears, that there would be a big noise,'' Basanta said. ``Then they fired at the truck. There was so much fuel aboard it just exploded.

''CRADLE OF HOPE SINKSThe group watched as the flaming Chevy sank.''Nos engañaron,'' Basanta said, quietly. They tricked us.

Lt. Tony Russell, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami, said he would not speculate about what transpired between the Coast Guard agent and the Chevy passengers. ``But in my experience we are always honest and upfront with migrants to bring them off the vessels in an orderly manner.

''Towing the Chevy -- either to Cuba or Key West -- would have been out of the question, Russell said.''That vessel is not designed to go to sea,'' said Russell, adding that the lack of lights, save for the headlights, made it a risk to other vessels at night.

``Boats are designed to slide efficiently through the water. [The Chevy] is almost brick-shaped; it wouldn't be an easy pull.''A few days into their stay aboard the Coast Guard vessel, Basanta met with a U.S. immigration official. The decision: repatriation.By last Sunday, four days after their journey began, the group was dropped off at the port of Cabañas on Cuba's northwestern shore.

''We were interviewed by security, and they put us in cars to take us back home. That was it,'' Basanta said. As the cars made their way to San Miguel del Padrón, word spread that the 12 had returned home.''People filled the street,'' Basanta told his cousin, López, over the phone.Basanta's wife, Mirlena, opened the door, saw her husband and burst into tears.''Happiness and sadness,'' Basanta said. ``Happy that I wasn't dead, but sad that I was home.''

CNBC called this feat a marvelous work of engineering. The attempt at crossing the Florida Straits in a floating flatbed truck with 55-gallon (250-litre) drums strapped to its sides, tires still in place, a propeller attached to its drive shaft and a driver behind the wheel was beyond belief. According to the Coast Guard: "We've seen surfboards, pieces of Styrofoam, bathtubs, refrigerators. But never an automobile," It was a pity that the Coast Guard destroyed this piece fit for a museum as a proof of human ingenuity in its quest for freedom.

The violation of the spirit of President Johnson’s Cuban Immigration Adjustment Act by President Clinton continues under President Bush. The immoral policy of wet feet, dry feet by returning to the Island-Prison those Cubans intercepted before touching U.S. land defies logic. It is important to keep in mind that only one in four reach alive at our coasts and those intercepted and returned to Cuba face death or up to 10 years imprisonment under subhuman conditions in Castro’s dungeons.

That policy of deporting those fleeing the last communist enclave in this hemisphere is inhuman and must be ended. It is a re-run of the Roosevelt’s administration shameful policy towards the Jews during the Holocaust. A ship full of Jewish refugees, the St. Louis, was denied entrance in the United States and forced to return to Holland already occupied by the Nazis therefore ending up in the concentration camps.

After all, Cubans have not been a burden, but a positive immigration for the United States with its highest level of education among all the Hispanics in U.S. according to the U.S. Census, with the highest percentage in the top income bracket and the lowest among the lower brackets.

It was an act of piracy to intercept the fleeing Cubans in international waters since, under the United Nations Humans Rights Declaration; everybody is free to leave its own country. Furthermore, Cubans are legal political refugees who came invited by President Johnson, in the context of the immigration problems for the U.S, Cubans are just a tiny drop on the tsunami of illegal aliens arriving to our shores.

Cuban naturalized Americans vote and played an important role in Bush’s election and now feel betrayed by the continuation of this inhuman policy. We should keep in mind that Castro is the longest lasting terrorist in the world and the only person who once tried to nuke our cities. Nevertheless Castro continues to bully into submission to his will the American Presidents. 90 miles off the coast of Florida with a seething hatred for America, Castro is not just another tyrant. He's the only living dictator who tried to get the Soviet Union to nuke the United States. Now Castro is developing at least the capability for biological weapons, and he's got the right connections with rogue states to fulfill his dreams of destroying the United States.

REPATRIATED CUBANS
SPELL BOASTLOAD OF TROUBLE FOR BUSH

By Robert Novak
Chicago Sun-Times Columnist
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago
E.U.
Colaboración:
Armando F. Mastrapa III
New York
La Nueva Cuba
August 1, 2003

It was not just that the Bush administration dispatched 12 Cubans who hijacked a boat to the tender mercies of Fidel Castro. What inflamed
pro-Bush Cuban Americans in south Florida is that the United States negotiated with the communist dictator to impose 10-year prison sentences.
This sudden agreement between Washington and Havana could cost George W. Bush a second term.

President Bush's Cuban-American friends consider this a de facto trial, resulting in incarceration by a police state. ''This is a very pained
community,'' Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart told me. Sharing the pain of his Cuban constituents and known to be unhappy with the decision is the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. ''I do not think the president
was aware of this decision,'' said Diaz-Balart.

Although there is truly no sign the decision went to the Oval Office, its political sting may be felt there. It is clear that Bush could not have won Florida and the presidency in 2000 without Cuban votes. Since repatriation of the hijackers, Florida Democrats have been busy pointing out betrayal by the White House. If Cuban voters stay home next time, Florida will almost surely be won by Bush's Democratic opponent.

Eleven men and one woman, seeking freedom in America, stole the Cuban boat Gaviota 16 on July 15 but were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard the next day. They were denied automatic entry into the United States, granted under law, citing an agreement with Castro made by President Bill Clinton. The issue went to a U.S. interagency committee, where Justice and State Department career bureaucrats insisted the refugees be returned to Castro.

The three Cuban Americans from south Florida in Congress--Lincoln Diaz-Balart, his brother, Mario, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen--pleaded to send
the hijackers elsewhere, perhaps Guantanamo. Instead, the bureaucrats bargained with the Cuban dictator. Once Castro agreed not to execute the
refugees as he had U.S.-bound hijackers in April, U.S. negotiators eagerly accepted 10-year prison sentences. The freedom-seekers were sent back July
21.

Desire to achieve accord with Castro has not borne fruit. Starting July 6, U.S. broadcasts to Iran that are critical of the mullahs were illegally jammed from Cuba. Why has the U.S. government not protested? The CIA has informed the White House that the jamming originated at the Iranian embassy in Havana. It defies belief that this could have been done without
concurrence and cooperation by Cuba's government.

Repatriation of the hijackers fits a pattern. In federal court in Key West, Fla., July 10, a Cuban accused of skyjacking was denied permission to
testify that he feared for his life if he surrendered control of the plane to Castro's agents. Bush has waived the rights of Americans to sue foreign speculators who profit from stolen American properties in Cuba. The Justice
Department never has sought indictments of Cuban Air Force pilots who shot down small civilian aircraft in international air space.

Bush has been prevented from getting his choices in control of Cuban policy. Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd has been relentless in blocking
confirmation of Bush's own assistant secretary of state for Latin America.

Without much effort made by the White House, Bush gave up on Otto Reich, former ambassador to Venezuela, who was instead named a presidential
adviser. Roger Noriega, ambassador to the Organization of American States, was finally confirmed by the Senate Tuesday night after a four-month wait.

If Castro was a fixation for John F. Kennedy, he seems off the screen for George W. Bush. While repatriation to Cuban prisons caused a furor in south Florida, it hardly made a ripple in Washington. My check of Bush policy and
political advisers indicated neither awareness nor interest in what happened.

Diaz-Balart refers to the Cubans as the base of Hispanic support for the president and the Republican Party. If this is the treatment given the only minority group that supports the GOP, he wonders what message will be sent other minority groups wooed by Republicans. ''When the base is ignored,'' the congressman said, ''there is a problem.'' More than ignored, the Cubans
are simply disrespected, and that is the painful message in Miami.

August 8, 2003

Mr. Ed Gillespie. RNC Chairman

Republican National Committee

310 First St., SE

Washington, DC. 2003

Dear Ed:

Congratulations for having been chosen to assume the responsibility of presiding the Republican Party. It is not only a great honor for you, but it is a role that will allow you greater success. For this achievement you will have to count with the backing of the majority of U.S. voters.

In your first declarations as the GOP chairman, you made a clear statement about Hispanics being the largest minority in the U.S. and the importance for the Republicans to attract us as much as possible.

Among the Hispanics, it is well known that the 2 million Cubans distributed all over the nation, are mostly Republican voters and were the main factor for President Bush wining the State of Florida, which decided the election. All of us Cubans were happy with the man that had promised his total backing to the freedom of our land. A man of courage and firmness in word had become President.

And what has been the reality of Mr. Bush’s Administration toward his promises? Here are some of them:

- The Cubans seeking liberty, running from Castro and his communist regime, using rafts and whatever other ways to escape, are intercepted in the middle of the ocean, not by Castro’s gunboats, but by the U.S. Coast Guard, which seizes them and sends them back to Castro’s “justice”. The highly touted U.S. record on human rights is being dragged down the drain by Mr. Bush, who is following a Clinton agreement with Castro. THIS IS TRUE.

- First there were planes filled with medicines to be carried to Cuba. Later the planes transported other type of merchandise. Now, the commerce has increased to big ships with all kind of “aid” (surplus grains, paper, agricultural materials, equipment, etc.), departing from Corpus Christi and other 11 U.S. ports to reinforce Castro’s regime. President Bush must know it. THIS IS TRUE

- With the Republicans controlling the majority of the Congress, The Helms law, which seeks to make the embargo against Castro effective, has been placed aside again, without President Bush signing it. That is a very different way to act than when the U.S. government firmly backed the embargo against South Africa for giving entrance to Mr. Mandela, who “to reciprocate his gratitude”, refused to receive President Bush during his recent visit to South Africa. THIS IS TRUE.

- The European Union is rejecting Castro’s executions and imprisonments of three young black workers and dozens of independent journalists, penalizing Castro with sanctions. Has President Bush joined them? Not at all Chairman Gillespie. He informed the EU that his government will take no action and would leave them to act by themselves.

- President Bush looks away so as not to see the artistic, intellectuals, musicals and all kind of “special cultural ambassadors”, coming from Cuba to get US dollars as well as to perform infiltration. By the same token, but the opposite way, the Administration keeps tight control of any Cuban active action against Castro’s regime.

How do you feel about all of these facts Mr. Chairman? How will President Bush or yourself ask the Cuban community for support with the pending question: Is Mr. Bush’s Administration with Castro, or with the freedom of Cuba? Is Mr. Bush on the side of the lack of humanism by sinking and returning to Castro the defenseless rafters for their execution or years of terrible imprisonment, or is the President going to back dignity and keep his word to the Cuban community and to the world?

These Chairman Gillespie, are the questions that must be answered, not with nice political promises, but with true facts and actions.

Bush popularity is falling and will be lower when elections are near. Democrats and the American people are asking the truth about the war in Iraq. Cubans also want to know the truth as to where President stands: With Castro, or with Cuba’s freedom? . . .

I hope, Chairman Gillespie that you will carefully analyze this letter to decide on your own if we are right. And if we are, then what will the Republican Party and President Bush do?

Truly yours

Guillermo R. Morini

Posted on Mon, Aug. 11, 2003

State GOP legislators urge action on Cuba
Letter: President may lose support
BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@herald.com

A group of Florida Republican state representatives has drafted a letter warning President Bush he risks losing their support for the 2004 election if he does not adopt a tougher Cuba policy.

The move, which amounts to a litmus test for federal candidates on Cuban issues, exacerbates a widening rift between the administration and some Cuban-American leaders -- many of whom have begun questioning their steadfast loyalty to the Republican Party.

The letter, expected to be mailed to Washington today, echoes demands expressed recently by other Cuban Americans: revise current migration policy; indict Fidel Castro for the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down; ensure that TV Martí is seen by people in Cuba; and increase assistance to dissidents on the island.

''We feel it is our responsibility as Republican elected officials to inform you that unless substantial progress on the above-mentioned issues occurs rapidly, we fear the historic and intense support from Cuban American voters for Republican federal candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized,'' reads the letter, signed by 13 members of the state's Republican Hispanic Caucus.

The spark that ignited the growing criticism was the Bush administration's decision last month to repatriate 12 Cubans suspected of hijacking a boat to reach Florida. After negotiations with Cuba, the United States agreed to return the suspects when Castro's government pledged to spare their lives and sentence them to no more than 10 years in prison. Even Bush's own brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, recently criticized the decision to return the suspects.

State Rep. David Rivera, who helped draft the document, labeled discontent among Cuban-American voters as a ''growing crisis'' for Republican leaders at the federal level.

''As the summer has passed, there has been a snowball effect of frustration within the Cuban-American community,'' Rivera said in an interview Sunday. ``We want immediate, tangible, substantive action.''

When asked what the consequences were for Bush if he failed to meet the demands, Rivera said the 13 would refuse financial and tactical support for Bush in the 2004 election including help in fundraisers.

''If this is ignored, abstention or neutrality in federal races becomes a real possibility,'' Rivera said. ``It's not an option for us to support Democrats, but we want our support to mean something.''

Jimmy Orr, a White House spokesman, reiterated the president's strong feelings on trying to bring democratic change to Cuba. However, Orr declined to address the specific demands in the letter. The Herald read highlights to him.

''The administration is firmly dedicated to a pro-active Cuba policy that will assist the Cuban people in their struggle for freedom,'' Orr said in a phone interview from Washington on Sunday. ``The president remains committed to the use of the embargo and travel restrictions to encourage a rapid transition.''

The challenge by state politicians is the latest in a series of recent backlashes against the Bush administration by Cuban-American leaders.

''You can't blame anyone but those in power,'' said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, who added that the criticism comes not just because of the repatriation of the 12 suspected hijackers. 'We need less politicians coming down to South Florida and saying `que viva Cuba libre' [long live a free Cuba] with an accent, and more action.''

Since last month, criticism of the Bush administration has escalated into a full-fledged attack on Cuba policies.

''Our public is very upset,'' state Rep. Juan Carlos Planas said Sunday. ``[Bush] needs to know that unless things change, the support he has gotten in the past will not be there.''

Sergio Bendixen, a prominent South Florida pollster and political analyst who usually does work for the Democratic Party, said Sunday that until he heard about the elected officials' letter to Bush, he did not think the Bush administration was in trouble in South Florida.

''I think it's serious,'' Bendixen said. ``[Bush] can no longer say this is just Joe Garcia or the Cuban American National Foundation upset with the president or the Republican Party. This is the establishment. All those young state representatives are the hard core of the Republican Party in Florida.''

The letter also places Gov. Bush in an awkward position because the members of the Republican Hispanic Caucus are among his most loyal political allies.

''[Jeb] believes the president has a strong record when it comes to Cuba policy,'' the governor's spokeswoman, Jill Bratina, said Sunday.

Besides Rivera and Planas, the letter was signed by State Reps. Marco Rubio, Ralph Arza, Gus Barreiro, Gaston Cantens, Rene Garcia, Marcelo Llorente, Manny Prieguez, Julio Robaina, Ken Sorensen, Juan Zapata and John Quiñones. Most are from South Florida.

Zapata, a Colombian American, said he sympathized with his Cuban-American colleagues because Castro's leftist agenda has had a terrible impact on Colombia.

Otto Reich, President Bush's special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, could not be reached Sunday. But on Friday, he spoke at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy in Miami.

In reference to TV and Radio Martí, Reich said the Bush administration will announce ''very soon'' a new method of penetrating the ''information wall'' that Castro has set up around Cuba.

Reich also underlined the administration's efforts to help dissidents on the island, citing the thousands of magazine subscriptions and short wave radios that have been disseminated in Cuba.

On ''wet foot, dry foot,'' Reich said the administration had to hold the current line to avoid another mass migration. Since 1995, Cuban migrants stopped at sea are generally returned home while those who reach U.S. soil generally get to stay.

''We hope this matter can be resolved before Cuban American support for Republican candidates is further damaged,'' the document states.

Herald staff writer Marika Lynch contributed to this report.

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