39 Cuban migrants come ashore in South Florida

[HURAKAN]

Cuban migrants land on Key Biscayne

Posted on Tue, Feb. 05, 2008
Miami Herald staff report

A group of Cuban migrants landed on Key Biscayne Tuesday morning.

The group was believed to number two dozen or more.

Police were on the scene.

Under the U.S. government's wet foot/dry foot policy, Cubans interdicted at sea are generally sent back to the island while those who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay.
____________________________________________________________________

This is one of the most desperate acts a person can take in search of financial and political freedom. Every year thousands of Cubans use the Florida Strait as the road that will lead them to a better life in the United States. Unfortunately, thousands also die when the sea becomes their graves. You can imagine how bad the situation is in Cuba when many decide that is worth it risking their life than staying in the country. Moreover, many of these persons are professionals that can't have a decent life in Cuba.

[Beam]

It makes you appreciate just how well you have it (and how badly others have it) when people are risking their lives every single day just to be a part of your country.

[HURAKAN]

Group Of Cubans Lands On Sunny Isles Beach

SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. -- A group of Cubans was taken into Border Patrol custody on Wednesday morning after they landed on Sunny Isles Beach.

Authorities said they found at least 29 people on the beach.

The group was smuggled in a speedboat found anchored on the shoreline, officials said.

Members of the group are being questioned about the possible smuggling operation. No arrests have been made.

[tropicana]

i agree Hurakan, life really has to be crazy in Cuba if those people risk every single thing that they have (and their lives) to make that dangerous crossing over to the US.
Funny I just read today that Canadians love to holiday in Cuba, in fact, travel agencies do brisk business and advertising for holiday resorts in Cuba, and everyone I've spoken to who has gone there says they always have the most greatest time ever. Someone I know in fact got married in Cuba around New Years!
Granted tho that they never venture out of the resorts, so as a vacationer, the true island experience and what these people are going through isn't portrayed to any tourist.

But I also read that Americans are not allowed to go to Cuba at all, is that true? I just find it so hard to believe that in this day and age, travel is restricted. Is it that you can't travel to Cuba via any US destination, or is it that holding an American passport ... you cannot enter Cuba at all?

-justin-

[HURAKAN]

If you live in the US, you can travel to Cuba is you have close relatives in the island, which leaves out cousins, aunts, uncles and relatives further out in the family tree. Even if you are a resident of the US and a citizen of Cuba, your travel to the island is restricted to once in every three years. I can only go to the island because my grandparents from my dad side still live there. By the way, I'm still a Cuban citizen but my rights to visit my country are restricted to once every three years. As can believe I'm completely opposed to this rule but the persons that created the restrictions don't have any family members in Cuba. I went to Cuba last year and can't go back under the current regulations until 2010. My grandparents are already 71 and 68 years old and I don't know if I will see them alive again because at that age anything can happen and take them from this Earth.

The current regulations were established to bring faster democracy to Cuba. We're still waiting for this happen and it has already been 50 years. Believe me, Cuba won't fall like the USSR did. There is no comparison between both regimes and size of the dictatorships.

[gtalum]

It's truly a shame that residents and citizens of an allegedly free country are restricted formt raveling to another country.

[HURAKAN]

39 Cuban migrants come ashore in S. Florida
ERIKA BERAS, eberas@MiamiHerald.com

Human smugglers are getting more creative in their efforts, says Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Lazaro Guzman.

Take Wednesday morning.

About 2 a.m., a group of five Cuban migrants were found in Hollywood.

At 5 a.m., 29 Cuban migrants turned up in Sunny Isles Beach.

And just before 9 a.m., there were five at the Rickenbacker Causeway.

"It's not unusual for smugglers to change their course," Guzman said. "They were landing at Key Biscayne, but now we have a stronger presence there. Once we control Key Biscayne, they start popping up everywhere else."

The group in Hollywood was found at Indiana Street and the boardwalk.

"That was a staged landing," Guzman said. "These are people who have already been in the country a couple of days and then are told to go to the beach and pretend they just landed."

The group had left from Santa Lucia Pinar del Rio.

Three hours later, a group of 29 Cuban migrants were found in Sunny Isles Beach, according to a supervisor at the U.S. Border Patrol.

In the group near State Road AIA and Northeast 158th Street were 19 men, eight women and two juveniles.

They were transported by Miami-Dade police, whom they flagged down when they landed.

The migrants told officials they had left Villa Clara, Cuba, on Thursday and spent several days at sea.

A boat was found beached nearby -- a 33-foot Avanti. Three suspected smugglers ran off, officials said.

U.S. Border Patrol has the vessel and is inspecting it.

"These people do not look weathered. They tell us one story about how they came in a homemade boat," Guzman said, "but once they are in a controlled environment, we take care of them, we offer them medical attention and they start recanting what they were saying."

The migrants said family members paid $10,000 to have them brought to the United States.

On Tuesday, 12 migrants showed up on the Rickenbacker Causeway and 21 showed up at Bill Baggs State Park.

Under the United States' wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those interdicted at sea are usually turned back.

[Brent]

If you live in the US, you can travel to Cuba is you have close relatives in the island, which leaves out cousins, aunts, uncles and relatives further out in the family tree. Even if you are a resident of the US and a citizen of Cuba, your travel to the island is restricted to once in every three years. I can only go to the island because my grandparents from my dad side still live there. By the way, I'm still a Cuban citizen but my rights to visit my country are restricted to once every three years. As can believe I'm completely opposed to this rule but the persons that created the restrictions don't have any family members in Cuba. I went to Cuba last year and can't go back under the current regulations until 2010. My grandparents are already 71 and 68 years old and I don't know if I will see them alive again because at that age anything can happen and take them from this Earth.

The current regulations were established to bring faster democracy to Cuba. We're still waiting for this happen and it has already been 50 years. Believe me, Cuba won't fall like the USSR did. There is no comparison between both regimes and size of the dictatorships.

WOW, that's sad. I wasn't aware of this rule.

[Category 5]

Under the United States' wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cuban migrants who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those interdicted at sea are usually turned back.

Like paying someone for speeding.

Obviously though things must be really bad over there for them to go to these lengths. Whats a shame is theres really nothing we can do.

[HURAKAN]

I think the US should have never let Cuba become an independent state and should have made the island an American state when it was captured from Spain during the Spanish-American War. Everything would have worked better for Cuba and for the US.

[Dionne]

i agree Hurakan, life really has to be crazy in Cuba if those people risk every single thing that they have (and their lives) to make that dangerous crossing over to the US.
Funny I just read today that Canadians love to holiday in Cuba, in fact, travel agencies do brisk business and advertising for holiday resorts in Cuba, and everyone I've spoken to who has gone there says they always have the most greatest time ever. Someone I know in fact got married in Cuba around New Years!
Granted tho that they never venture out of the resorts, so as a vacationer, the true island experience and what these people are going through isn't portrayed to any tourist.

But I also read that Americans are not allowed to go to Cuba at all, is that true? I just find it so hard to believe that in this day and age, travel is restricted. Is it that you can't travel to Cuba via any US destination, or is it that holding an American passport ... you cannot enter Cuba at all?

-justin-

The embargo is the result of the Cuban Missile crisis. The U.S. State Department regulates travel to Cuba. American citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba. This doesn't mean we cannot get there. Separate flights can be booked via Mexico City. Just don't get your passport stamped while in Cuba. Or hope like hell U.S. Customs doesn't notice the Cuban stamp when re-entering the U.S. Which is entirely possible as our passports are nothing more than a bar code. The fine can be as much as 10K. The embargo should have been lifted long ago.

[Pburgh]

Do any of you remember the Cuban Missle Crisis?

[HURAKAN]

Do any of you remember the Cuban Missle Crisis?

That was mainly between the US and the USSR. Cuban families shouldn't have to suffer this separation because of something that happened almost 50 years ago. The USSR is already gone but we have still suffer the separation. Sorry, but you have to feel it to really be able to understand it.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Unrestricted travel to Cuba by US tourists, while supplying money to the dictatorship, would also expose at least those working in the tourist industries, plus people visited by family members, to the benefits of capitalism and democracy.


I know China has nukes, and has more power in the world, but the Chinese communists are at least as murderous, and non-democratic, as the Cuban leadership, so it always strikes me as more than a bit of a double standard to treat them so differently.


Of course, there is no critical electoral college swing state with a large concentration of Chinese refugees from the PRC dictators, and the perception is that tough on Castro policies are popular with the Cuban-American community, which has kept both major parties from doing anything constructive in regards to Cuba.

[HURAKAN]

It's interesting to mention that there is a big difference between the old Cuban generation and the new Cuban generation. The people that left Cuba in the 60s and 70s, lost a lot of properties and money because Castro took over and said that everything in Cuba was for the Cuban people and shouldn't be in private hands. I understand their outrage against Castro but unfortunately the policies haven't worked. The Cubans that left in the 60s and 70s were not migrants but exiles. They expected to be back soon since Castro's regime was not going to last very long. Most have already died or are still waiting for Catro's dictatorship to end.

The new Cuban generation were born during the Castro era, like myself and my parents, we lived through the hardships and still we have families behind. We have seen how the Castro regime always accuses the US embargo for everything they do. If anything bad happens to the Cuban economy or in the country, their answer is that it's because of the US imperialism. I have always said that the US should lift the embargo, allow people in Cuba to see what is outside, to hear opinions from others. The embargo and current regulations are making the Cuban people less aware of what is happening outside, how people live outside, and allow the Cuban government to control the TV, newspapers, radio, and internet, and feed the Cuban people with lies and deception.

If you think the Cuban government has been affected by the tougher regulations, learn this:

"From its introduction until 2005, the convertible peso was pegged to the U.S. dollar at 1:1. On March 24, 2005, the central bank increased the value of the convertible peso by 8% making one convertible peso worth 1.08 U.S. dollars.

A 10% tax is applied when exchanging cash, in addition to this 8% increase, and a commission, meaning that one convertible peso will cost more than US$1.20. The 10% tax is not applied to other currencies, nor does it apply to bank transfers or credit card payments.

For transactions using credit cards, the cards are charged in U.S. dollars at an exchange rate of 1.1124. This combines the 1.08 rate with an extra 3% service charge."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUC_%28currency%29

This literally means that the CUC (Cuban convertible peso or "chavito") is stronger than the American dollar. Fidel Castro's regime is still there not because he is dumb but because he's too smart and because Cuba doesn't oil like Venezuela!!

[Pburgh]

HURAKAN, I wasn't being snide. I really wanted to know if anyone here was alive and lived thru that terrifying time? That all.

[HURAKAN]

HURAKAN, I wasn't being snide. I really wanted to know if anyone here was alive and lived thru that terrifying time? That all.

I understand but it's true that during this time the Cuban people were caught up in the middle of the conflict between the US and USSR. The embargo was set up to diminish the amount of money the Cuban government receives from the US and to bring democracy to the island faster.

"Since the turn of the century, a law has been passed in the United States of America that restricts entry to anyone who has visited Cuba. This stops the individual from entering USA territory for another 15 years.

The embargo was codified into law in 1992 with the stated purpose of "bringing democracy to the Cuban people", and in fact is entitled the Cuban Democracy Act. In 1996 Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act which further restricted United States citizens from doing business in or with Cuba, and mandated restrictions on giving public or private assistance to any successor regime in Havana unless and until certain claims against the Cuban government are met. In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo even further by ending the practice of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies trading with Cuba totaling more than US$700 million a year.

At present, the embargo, which limits American businesses from conducting business with Cuban interests, is still in effect, making it one of the few times in history that United States citizens have been restricted from doing business abroad, and is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. Despite the existence of the embargo, the United States is the seventh largest exporter to Cuba (4.3% of Cuba's imports are from the US)."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_embargo

[HURAKAN]

It's very interesting to mention that two of the most influential Cuban-Americans in Washington have family ties to Fidel Castro. Lincoln Dias-Balart and Mario Dias-Balart, representatives of the state of Florida, are the cousins of Fidel Catro Dias-Balart, Castro's first son.

[wyq614]

Well, I'm going to learn Spanish further in Cuba this October, does it necessarily mean that I can never visit the U.S.? And, is living in Cuba really so terrible that a lot of people risk their lives immigrant to the US?

[HURAKAN]

It's not as terrible as some countries in Central or South America or in Africa, but people must struggle to live day by day. A small example is the paying. A teacher earns around 400 pesos per month, which is equal to 16 CUC (chavitos or Cuban convertible peso). Because what the government provides is not enough to survive, you have to buy in the stores or "shoppings" which are mainly affortable by the foreigners. If you have family members in the United States, you may be having a better time, but for those that only rely in their work and what the government provides, it's very hard.