7 Cubans head for US, reach only US mission
The Associated Press
HAVANA -- Seven Cubans who set out for the United States in a rickety
plastic foam boat wound up instead in front of the U.S. mission to Cuba
on Thursday.
The would-be migrants drew gawkers - as well as the attention of Cuba's
coast guard - because their journey ended along the rocks lining
Havana's heavily traveled Malecon seafront boulevard near the U.S.
Interests Section.
Coast guard craft surrounded the disabled little boat around midday, so
the seven men jumped in the water and clambered out over the rocks, to
be picked up by police.
"Our tiller broke and we had to turn back," Margoi Diaz, 33, told The
Associated Press as he sat in a military vehicle on the Malecon.
Plastic foam boats sold in Havana are used primarily for fishing in
Havana Bay. They are usually shunned by people trying to reach the U.S.
because they are fragile and cannot safely hold more than two or three
people.
A police officer at the scene said the men were being taken home, not to
jail, because they had not committed any crime.
Cuba has agreed with the U.S. that most would-be migrants stopped at sea
by either nation will be returned to Cuba, which promised not to
prosecute them.
The seaborne attempt itself was not unusual, even if the landing point
was. The Interests Section says that 13,800 Cubans tried to reach the
U.S. illegally in 2007 both by sea and by land on the U.S. border with
Mexico.
7 Cubans head for US, reach only US mission - Americas AP -
MiamiHerald.com (4 June 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/1081685.html
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