Coast Guard 5 Cubans may have died 44 repatriated

Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006

Coast Guard : 5 Cubans may have died, 44 repatriated
BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

Five Cuban migrants may have died in the past two weeks trying to make
it to U.S. shores, and the Coast Guard said today it repatriated to Cuba
44 migrants picked up at sea in the last few days.

The Coast Guard intercepted the first group of four migrants aboard a
rustic vessel 67 miles south of the Dry Tortugas on March 5. Two days
later, another group of 13 migrants was found on a on an old boat 66
miles south of Marquesas. Of those, two were transferred to Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officials at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba,
the Coast Guard said.

On March 8, the Coast Guard found yet another ''rustic vessel'' with 13
migrants aboard 72 miles south of Key West. The migrants told the Coast
Guard that their motor had broken down, that they had been adrift for
almost two weeks -- including nine days without food and water -- and
that one older Cuban had died during the voyage.

That same day, the cutter Drummond intercepted another rustic vessel
with seven migrants just four miles west of Dry Tortugas.

''The group of migrants stated four fellow migrants jumped overboard in
an attempt to swim to land,'' the Coast Guard said in a news release.

``The Coast Guard launched a massive 36-hour search that included the
Cutter Drummond and several aircraft in response to a body found on Dry
Tortugas, earlier that morning. The body found that morning is thought
to be one of the four migrants who jumped overboard because the deceased
migrant was found wearing a life jacket similar to those worn by the
rescued migrants.''

On March 9, a Coast Guard helicopter spotted nine Cubans on an Air Force
tower 33 miles north of Marquesas, after a passerby reported hearing
voices on the tower. They were picked up by the cutter Tempest.

The cutter Metompkin repatriated the Cubans to Bahia de Cabañas.

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