BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com
The number of Cuban migrants interdicted in the Florida Straits by the
U.S. Coast Guard so far this year has exceeded the total number of
interceptions for all of 2006 -- with still more than three months to go
before year's end.
Coast Guard officials said Wednesday that the increase in interceptions
is a reflection of more systematic operations by well-organized migrant
smugglers, and more attempts to take to the sea during the summer if
there are no storms in the area.
As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, the number of Cuban migrants stopped at sea
reached 2,340 or 47 more than the total intercepted last year.
If the trend continues, by year's end interdictions may exceed even
those in 2005 -- 2,952, the largest number in one year since the 1994
rafter exodus when 37,191 were picked up.
The increase in interdictions does not appear to portend a mass exodus,
at least for now, since Cuban leader Fidel Castro took ill in July 2006
and ''temporarily'' ceded power to his brother Raúl.
Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, Cubans who make it to U.S. shores
stay and those interdicted at sea are usually returned. On Wednesday,
the Coast Guard cutter Knight Island repatriated 88 Cuban migrants
picked up during four separate interceptions in recent days.
Analysts were split over whether conditions in Cuba have deteriorated
since Fidel Castro withdrew from managing national affairs. Some think
more Cubans are giving up on change, while others believe the increase
in migrant departures repeats past patterns that ebb and flow.
''A lot is based on opportunity [and] migrant smuggling presents more
opportunity to try to make the voyage from Cuba to Florida,'' said Lt.
Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. ``As a result you
see more people.''
O'Neil said that contrasting with voyages in years past, when most
migrants traveled in rafts or rickety boats, expensive go-fast boats
carrying larger groups of up to 50 people per vessel are now traversing
the Florida Straits.
''It's not that there may be more attempts [to reach the United States]
but more people per boat,'' O'Neil said.
One vessel stopped by the Coast Guard on Saturday was a 35-foot go-fast
with four outboard engines. It carried 59 Cubans and two suspected
smugglers. The go-fast boat's captain ignored Coast Guard orders to halt
and its engines were fired upon.
''After repeated warnings, specially trained Coast Guard officers used
disabling fire on the engines to safely stop the vessel,'' the Coast
Guard said in a statement. The migrants were transferred to a cutter and
the smugglers were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The other three intercepted vessels included a ''homemade kayak'' with
two migrants aboard, a ''rustic'' boat made of tin, plastic and wood
with 19 migrants aboard and another ''rustic'' vessel carrying eight
migrants.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/226919.html
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