[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 141 (Monday, October 3, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: October 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
CONDEMNING SINKING OF TUGBOAT ``13TH OF MARCH'' BY CUBA
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to
the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 279) condemning the July 13,
1994, sinking of the 13th of March, a tugboat carrying 72 unarmed Cuban
citizens, by vessels of the Cuban Government, as amended.
The clerk read as follows:
H. Con. Res. 279
Whereas there are credible reports that on July 13, 1994,
vessels of the Cuban Government fired high-pressure water
hoses, repeatedly rammed, and deliberately sank the ``13th of
March'', a tugboat carrying 72 unarmed Cuban citizens;
Whereas approximately 40 of the men, women, and children
passengers on the ``13th of March'' drowned as a result of
the actions of the Cuban Government, including over 20
children aboard;
Whereas President Clinton deplored the sinking of the
``13th of March'' as ``another example of the brutal nature
of the Cuban regime'';
Whereas on August 20, 1994, the President pledged that
``The United States will continue to bring before the United
Nations and other international organizations evidence of
human rights abuses, such as the sinking of the tugboat `13th
of March.' Meanwhile, we will pursue this matter with vigor
and determination.'';
Whereas all of the male survivors of the ``13th of March''
have been imprisoned by the Cuban Government;
Whereas the freedom to emigrate is an internationally
recognized human right and freedom's fundamental guarantor of
last resort; and
Whereas the Cuban Government, by prohibiting the existence
of a free press and by jamming TV and Radio Marti, denies the
Cuban people for the right of free access to information,
including information about this tragedy: Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That the Congress--
(1) condemns the Cuban Government for deliberately sinking
on July 13, 1994, the ``13th of March'', a tugboat carrying
72 unarmed Cuban citizens, causing the death of approximately
40 Cuban citizens, including over 20 children;
(2) urges the President to direct the United States
Representative to the United Nations to urge the United
Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that--
(A) condemns the sinking of the ``13th of March''; and
(B) provides for a full internationally supervised
investigation of the incident;
(3) urges the President to direct the United States
Representative to the United Nations to urge the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the
sinking of the ``13th of March''; and
(4) urges the Cuban Government--
(A) to release from prison and cease intimidation measures
against all survivors of the sinking of the ``13th of
March'';
(B) to identify all individuals missing from such sinking;
(C) to recover the bodies of the dead from such sinking;
and
(D) to return such bodies to their families so that these
men, women, and children may have appropriate burial
services.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
Jersey [Mr. Menendez] will be recognized for 20 minutes, and the
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith] will be recognized for 20
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez].
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, today all people of conscience, join in
condemning the outrageous act of brutality committed on July 13 off the
coast of Havana, Cuba by the Government of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
My colleagues, this vote is about Fidel Castro's Tiananmen Square. In
the early morning hours of July 13, Cuban Government boats chased and
deliberately killed up to 40 Cuban citizens, on a tugboat named the
13th of March, fleeing the horror of Castro's Cuba.
A group of 72 unarmed and innocent civilians were fired upon by
Castro's thugs with water cannons. They were hosed down so hard that
many flew off the boat and drowned! Women and children were among those
killed. Desperate mothers held up children in plain view of the
authorities. They believed that the savagery would stop, if only their
pursuers saw that there were children on board. But they were wrong.
The fierce thrust of pressure hoses continued unabated. Children ages
10 and under slipped from their mothers' arms and into the sea to die!
Even a 4 month-old baby was among them! A 4 month-old baby.
Eventually, after being rammed by Cuban Government tugboats, the 13th
of March capsized amidst a whirlpool, throwing the rest of those aboard
off. I denounced this act on the House floor as soon as it became clear
that it was an act of cold-blooded murder perpetrated by Fidel Castro's
henchman.
In acts of officially sanctioned terror, there are often courageous
survivors. One woman, Ms. Maria Victoria Garcia Suarez, survived to
tell about the horror that took place that morning on the high seas. In
an incredible display of courage, she defied the regime and told
foreign reporters in detail--including a reporter from Radio Marti from
whom the world received other vital information--how she lost her
husband, her 10 year-old son, three uncles, and two brothers. She and
her son used the floating cadaver of a woman to remain afloat. But her
son could not hold on; he lost his grip, and he drowned.
The cynicism and utter cruelty of this act is highlighted by the
method that the Cuban Government chose for this death chase. Rather
than stopping those who fled at the coast, Castro's thugs allowed them
to go 7 miles offshore--45 minutes from the coast. Then they went for
the kill. In the words of Janet Hernandez Gutierrez, 19, another
survivor, quote:
``They simply let us exit the bay and they attack us at 7 miles,
where there would be no witnesses. You know that in the open sea there
are no witnesses.''
But, much to Castro's dismay, there were survivors on the open seas
that morning. They have told the world about this act of murder.
President Clinton and Secretary Christopher have called it an ``example
of the brutal nature of Castro's regime.'' The House Foreign Affairs
Committee last week voted unanimously to condemn the Cuban Government
for this massacre. And the resolution now comes before the full House.
It puts Congress on record as a voice of conscience on this matter:
First, it condemns the Cuban Government for its deliberate sinking of
the 13th of March tugboat.
Second, it urges the President to direct the U.S. Representative to
the United Nations to urge the U.N. Security Council to adopt a
resolution that condemns the sinking of the tugboat; and that provides
for an internationally-supervised investigation of the incident. It
also urges the Cuban Government to do the following: release from
prison, and cease to intimidate, all survivors of the sinking; identify
all individuals from the sinking; and, recover and return the bodies of
the dead to their families so that these men, women, and children may
have appropriate burial services.
Finally, the resolution urges the President to direct the U.S.
Representative to the United Nations to urge the U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights to investigate the sinking of the 13th of March.
It is very distressing that any government, including Fidel Castro's,
can get away with such cold-blooded murder. That is why I introduced
this resolution.
So far, the Cuban dictatorship has responded in several ways to the
incident:
First, it stated the day after the incident--only after the brave
survivors had spoken up--that the massacre was the fault of a group of
``anti-social individuals.'' And incredibly, the Castro regime declared
the massacre an accident, and even congratulated itself for not killing
the 31 survivors! To this day, they have expressed no regret for the
loss of life.
Fortunately, the conscience of the Archbishop of Havana, Jaime
Ortega, compelled him to state that the sinking of the tugboat was ``in
no way accidental.'' The Archbishop also stated that, quote:
``The violent and tragic events that produced the sinking of a boat
where so many of our brothers and sisters lost their lives are,
according to accounts given by survivors, of a roughness that can
scarcely be imagined.''
As some of us know, nothing ever goes wrong in Cuba without Castro
and his puppets blaming the United States. Predictably, Castro blamed
the United States for the massacre.
Raul Castro called this an American ``anti-Cuba campaign,'' and
``interference by the United States in Cuba's internal affairs.'' Yes,
you heard correctly: it is America's fault that Castro and his henchmen
committed a massacre of 40 innocent men, women, and children on the
high seas.
The Castro dictatorship claims that it, quote: ``thoroughly
investigated the event and exhaustively informed its public of how the
tragic events occurred.'' If this were not the tragedy that it was,
that claim would be laughable. The fact of the matter is that no one
outside of the Castro regime has seen any report. The human rights
group Human Rights Watch/Americas states that, quote:
``Cuba continues to deny Human Rights Watch/Americas' request to see
the official results of the government's official investigation.''
Finally, the Castro dictatorship has also clearly demonstrated that
it fears the wrath of its own people by refusing to list who was killed
in the massacre or to recover the bodies of those who died on the ocean
floor. No one outside the dictatorship knows exactly who was on the
boat. That it is why in the resolution we ask that the government
release a list of the victims and recover and return to the families
the bodies of the dead.
My colleagues, the cold war has indeed ended. But it is still winter
in Havana. The miserable and oppressive climate in tropical Cuba will
persist as long as we are silent on atrocities such as this. Let us
stop turning a blind eye to that fact. I ask you to join with the
Archbishop of Havana and freedom-loving people throughout the world in
taking the Castro government to task for this act of murder.
{time} 1620
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may
consume to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] who has been an
outspoken advocate for human rights worldwide, but has been effective
and particularly tenacious when it comes to the abuses being committed
by the Castro regime.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey
for yielding me the time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution submitted to the
Congress by the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez]
and join, in addition to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez]
and the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith] the gentlewoman from
Florida [Ms. Ros-Lehtinen] the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Porter Goss,
the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Torricelli] and so many others who
have spoken out with so much vigor and decency and compassion on this
tragic incident which I think illustrates perhaps more than any other
incident can the nature of the brutal regime that is in power in that
island only 90 miles from our coast.
This incident that this resolution condemns and the Congress will
condemn today was one of the truly brutal massacres in this century.
Certainly I recall very few more extraordinarily brutal massacres in
the history of this hemisphere and, of course, it was accomplished, it
was committed by a regime that is characterized by many crimes, a
regime that is characterized by drug trafficking, a regime, many high
officials of which have been indicted by U.S. attorneys. There is a
draft indictment of the brother of the dictator, of Raul Castro, a
draft indictment by the U.S. attorney for the southern district of
Florida. There are indictments of other high officials of that
dictatorship, a dictatorship what has been renowned and continues to
train terrorists for evil acts throughout the world, a dictatorship
that just weeks ago engaged in overt and obvious emigration blackmail
to force our Government to sit at the table with it and to enter into a
negotiated settlement by which we asked the dictator to do what we go
to condemn it years after year in Geneva for, and that is violating
article 13 of the charter of the universal declaration of human rights
that does not permit nations to prohbit citizens for leaving their own
countries.
It is a regime that harbors fugitives from U.S. law and justice,
beginning with the de facto minister of crime of the Castro
dictatorship, fugitive from U.S. law, a renowned criminal named Robert
Vesco, a regime that engages in environmental recklessness, that is
drilling like madmen, they are drilling like madmen 90 miles from our
shores for oil to desperately keep alive an economy that has been
utterly destroyed by the dictatorship.
It is a regime that threatens us with Chernobyl-style nuclear
powerplants that it continues to build despite the urging, repeated
urging of members of the international community, and more than
anything else, it is a regime characterized by murder, and this murder
is perhaps the murder that has shocked the conscience most not only of
the people of Cuba but of those who are allies of freedom and democracy
for the people of Cuba, the murder of over 40 innocent men, women, and
children.
{time} 1630
This weekend when I was at home, I was reading a series of articles
by a Pulitzer Prize winner, in Miami, and she just visited the base,
the naval base in Guantanamo, and there she talked; you know, there are
30,000 refugees there, Mr. Speaker, that were caught up and had become
pawns in this tragedy between the Castro government and our Government
as a consequence of the immigration crisis of this last summer, and
they are there, and they wait and wait and wait. They are told they
have to wait indefinitely there, and they are not even given the right
to seek political asylum as is required by the convention on refugees
for every human being. Every human being has the right to seek
political asylum.
The 30,000 Cuban refugees languishing in the base in Guantanamo are
not even being given the right to seek political asylum.
This Pulitzer Prize winner, Liz Balmaseda, interviewed a 7-year-old
boy named Sergio Perodin, Jr. This 7-year-old boy is a survivor of the
massacre of July 13. His mother, Pilar Alamanza Romero, and his 11-
year-old brother, Yasser Perodin, they went down. They sunk with the
13th of March on July 13. They drowned. And so Sergio today is at Camp
Mike in Guantanamo after his mother and his brother drowned with the 40
others who were massacred by the Castro regime.
Liz Balmaseda writes the boy speaks little; he keeps the tragic
sequences of July 13 inside, letting them loose only in fitful sleep.
Like everybody else, he waits.
Well, the Congress cannot wait any longer to condemn the massacre of
July 13. As the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] stated, the
Catholic Church, in a courageous manner within Cuba, stated and
described the nature of the brutality, and it has been condemned, but
it has not been condemned enough by the international community.
Hopefully today a positive and very important step, a just and proper
and important step will be taken by this Congress in condemning the
massacre, the brutality committed by the Castro regime on July 13 when
it sank the tugboat named the 13th of March with 40 innocent men,
women, and children.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
distinguished gentleman from New York [Mr. Engel] who has often and
strongly been a voice in behalf of human rights and democracy in Cuba.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman who has really led the
fight against dictatorship and repression on the island of Cuba.
Mr. Speaker, once again Castro has shown his stripes in one of the
most brutal assaults on innocent civilians in this hemisphere; a
boatload of 72 Cuban refugees was sunk on July 13 when Cuban Government
ships rammed their vessel and fired high-pressure water cannons at
them.
Shortly after it happened, I remember discussing this with the
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez], the gentleman from Florida
[Mr. Diaz-Balart], and the gentlewoman from Florida [Ms. Ros-Lehtinen],
who could not believe there was such lack of reporting of this horrific
incident in the American press and, indeed, the world press. One would
really wonder as to why there would be an attempt to try to hush this
up.
There was a report in the Miami Herald which said 7 miles from shore
the boat was met by Cuban firefighting vessels, and reports indicated
that people were sent flying overboard and slamming against walls and
railings as powerful hoses shot their water against the tugboat.
In the end, more than 30 people died before the survivors were
rescued.
Mr. Speaker, 1 month Mr. Castro kills dozens of refugees escaping his
authoritarian government, and the next month he sends thousands of boat
people on a dangerous voyage to the shores of the United States. These
incidents should dispel any notion that Castro has any sense of decency
or any ounce of compassion for his people.
To those who would say that we ought to normalize relations with this
brutal, Stalinist regime, I would say that not until the political
pluralism comes to Cuba should we even think about it.
It is really amazing to me that the governments of Eastern Europe,
the Communist governments of Eastern Europe, have long ago fallen by
the wayside. There are very, very few Stalinist repressionist regimes
in the world, but Castro is still there; the aging dictator is still
there in Havana. It seems to me he has to go and get out of the way and
let democracy return to Cuba.
I am, therefore, proud to add my voice in support of H. Con. Res.
279, which condemns Cuba for the killings of July 13, and I would like
to once again thank my friend and colleague, the gentleman from New
Jersey [Mr. Menendez], for offering this resolution and for his
leadership on this issue.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss].
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 279, and I
thank the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey for yielding me this
time.
I also want to commend the Committee on Foreign Affairs for this
resolution. It condemns the brutal and deadly incident in Castro's Cuba
this summer we have been hearing about. It also remembers those who
were deliberately murdered. Those are strong words, but that is what
happened on the tugboat the 13th of March by Fidel Castro's goons.
While many individual Americans, I know, have mourned this particular
tragic incident and the deaths involved, and some are in my communities
in south Florida, some of the kinfolk, the July incident involving the
shooting of the Cuban tugboat carrying refugees was actually pretty
much unnoticed. It was largely unremarked by the national press and by
the Clinton administration.
It has been puzzling to understand why that went on for so long. It
was not actually until we had to go to the bargaining tables with Fidel
Castro to seek an end to what we euphemistically called irregular
departures of Cuban citizens that we started to hear more about this,
regrettably, under that agreement we came away with after the Clinton
administration bargained with Castro in New York. I am afraid the
administration has come up one more time with a short-term quick fix
rather than the long-term policy for the genuine change we all know we
need.
The agreement actually took the immigration pressure off the State of
Florida for a minute, and we in Florida are thankful for that in terms
of the disorder that was going on. But it does not get to the root of
the problem, and the root of the problem is Castro himself, and
everybody knows it.
With each day that passes, Cuba's economy is closer to tumbling down
around Fidel. We all know that, too.
I think at this time a stepped-up embargo and a commitment from our
allies to cut off Castro's economic lifeblood would solve the refugee
problem for good. I do not think Castro has ever hesitated to exploit
American weakness. On the other hand, I think we have hesitated far too
long to snap the weak link of Castro's regime, and that is his
faltering economy, a any observer knows today.
We here are urging that we condemn an act of repression and remember
those Cubans who died seeking a better life in America, and as has been
so poignantly pointed out by the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr.
Menendez] and the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] and all
others who are involved, we are talking about women, children, and
innocent victims just trying to get away from the problems of a gone-
wrong experiment in Marxist Fidel-land.
I think we have got to start thinking about how we are going to avoid
these in the future. These are going to happen again sadly enough, and
the bottom line I think for anybody who has looked at this program is
that it is time for Castro to go.
We can pass this resolution here in the United States Congress, but
it is not going to mean very much unless the President of the United
States follows through with some get-tough action, and I hope this will
be the trigger that causes that to happen.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution.
I want to thank my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr.
Menendez], for offering this. I am very proud to be a cosponsor.
It is a very important resolution. I hope it will have the full
support of the House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, this summer the waters around the island of Cuba, which
have often been the setting of tragedy, but a March day was the setting
for an unspeakable crime; the July 13 massacre and premeditated
drowning of approximately 40 Cubans was yet another example of the
brutality of the Cuban thugs.
For over 30 years the lives of freedom-loving Cubans have been
snuffed out by Fidel Castro and the people who work for him in every
sort of manner. This time the water cannon was the weapon of choice.
Castro's abominable human rights record is replete with massacres,
torture, imprisonment, and terror. Tens of thousands risk their lives
to escape with unseaworthy vessels. They often commandeer airplanes to
the Florida Keys. They often defy authorities with the power to
imprison them when they come forward to tell the truth about Castro.
{time} 1640
I remember reading and being moved to tears by the book ``Against all
Hope,'' by Armando Valladarres, who served as our ambassador to the
United Nations Human Rights Commission which met in Switzerland.
That book clearly demonstrated and showed the kind of repression that
is commonplace in Cuba.
Mr. Speaker, in the early hours of July 13, about 70 men, women, and
children aboard the wooden vessel which became known as the 13th of
March tug boat steamed out of Havana harbor into international waters.
This departure had been detected by Cuban port authorities.
Mr. Speaker, the pursuing tugs knocked the passengers overboard with
high-pressure water cannons and then rammed the wooden vessel until it
broke apart and sank. Many passengers went down with the tug boat. The
death toll, as we all know now, was about 40, including about 20
children.
Today we pay honor and respect to those lives which were lost and
extend condolences to the surviving family members. The House of
Representatives is poised today to go down on record against this
terrible and heinous act committed by the Cuban government.
We also seek action by our President to pursue a United Nations-
supervised investigation into this terrible incident.
Mr. Speaker, this is a very important resolution, and again I hope it
has the full support of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remaining time.
Mr. Speaker, one would think that people of conscience everywhere
would respond with outrage to this heinous act.
One would think that the editorial boards of our national media would
have immediately responded with horror and put it in print with the
same conviction that they ask for a lifting of the unilateral U.S.
trade embargo on Castro, as if removing that measure would transform
this brutal dictator.
One would think that the international community would uniformly
respond with indignation.
One would think that those countries such as Mexico, Spain, and
Canada, who are so eager to make a quick, cheap buck in Castro's Cuba
would express their indignation by withdrawing their bloodied
investment money from Castro's coffers.
One would think so. But sadly, tragically, their response has been
silence. Deafening Silence.
I ask: What will it take?
What will it take for the United States Government to act as
forcefully with the Castro dictatorship as it has with the regimes of
Haiti or racist South Africa?
What will it take for the international community to remove the rose-
colored glasses through which it incredibly still views Castro's
dictatorship?
What will it take for the world to acknowledge that in Cuba the
fundamental problem at hand is not U.S. policy, but the simple fact
that there remains in power the Stalin, the Kim II-Song, the Ceaucescu
of the Caribbean?
What will it take to get the lives of 40 men, women, and children
remembered? How much more cruelty will have to come out of Fidel Castro
before the world responds with outrage? How much? I sincerely hope that
it does not take another brutal act such as this.
Let me take just a moment to talk about America's perspective toward
the Castro dictatorship. Mr. Speaker, no country on this planet has
been so supportive of democracy and human rights throughout the world
than has the United States of America. No country on this planet has
been a stronger opponent of tyranny and oppression worldwide than has
the United States of America. No people have embraced the cause of
those who have been victimized by Communist dictatorships than have the
American people. No people have been as supportive of the oppressed
people of Cuba than have the American people. The American people
should be proud of that. As an American of Cuban descent, I certainly
am.
But it is a shame, a terrible shame and disgrace, that some of our
own allies throughout the world have not stood in solidarity with the
people of Cuba at the time of their most critical need and terrible
suffering. History will record this.
There are over one million Cuban-Americans in this country. Each and
every one of them will never forget that in their time of desperation,
the American people were there. Each and every one of them will never
forget that when it came time to denounce the brutal Castro
dictatorship, when it came time to say no to Fidel Castro, America was
there--and always has been.
Mr. Speaker, today, once again, the American people, through their
elected representatives are there: they are there to speak out loudly
in behalf of freedom and boldly against the continuing brutality of the
dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro may not like it; Fidel
Castro's allies may not like it; and Fidel Castro's friends may not
like it: but that has never stopped the American people from standing
up for what is right, and it won't stop them now.
One of the survivors of the tugboat sinking, Janet Hernandez
Gutierrez, asked the following of Castro's thugs at Villa Marista,
state security headquarters, when she was taken in for questioning,
quote.
I asked them in Villa Marista that what will become of
those responsible for sinking us, the murderers of our
children and relatives. Because there are children who lost
their mothers. My nephew, for example. He knows he lost her,
because that is the saddest part, that he knows he lost her.
And he asks me in a childlike manner--I wish he were here
because he is a much better witness than I because a child is
worth so much--he asks why the frogmen who dive to put fish
in the aquarium--why can't they recover his mother and his
little brother.
Sadly, we cannot tell Ms. Hernandez what will become of the
murderers. We cannot return her nephews' mother and sister to him. But
we can condemn this massacre and let the world know about it. That is
the purpose of this resolution. Let us all, as citizens of the greatest
nation in the world, denounce the brutal massacre of 40 men, women, and
children by the dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Let us never cease to
condemn human rights violations whenever and wherever they occur.
Mr. Speaker, I submit the following documents for the Record:
Statement by Christine Shelly, acting Spokesman, Department of State
cuba: sinking of tugboat
Cuban government vessels fired high-pressure water hoses at
the tugboat ``13th of March'' in an attempt to stop those
aboard the vessel from fleeing Cuba on July 13. These vessels
are also reported to have rammed the ``13th of March'' in an
attempt to stop it. An official Cuban government statement
admitted that there was a collision as these pursuing vessels
maneuvered to intercept the ``13th of March,'' causing it to
sink. Thirty-one people were reported rescued, [with perhaps
forty others--including many children--having drowned in the
incident.] There have now been reports that mourners are
being harassed or detained by authorities.
We continue to receive information from survivors and next
of kin that this was not an accident. We support the plea of
the Archbishop of Havana for a full investigation of the
tragedy, and call on the Cuban government to cease such
violent acts against its own citizens.
____
Department of State,
Washington, DC, September 20, 1994.
Hon. Lee Hamilton,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,
House of Representatives.
Dear Mr. Chairman: This letter is to express our support
for H. Con. Res. 279, which condemns the July 13, 1994,
sinking of the ``13th of March'', a tugboat carrying Cuban
citizens.
We fully share the sense of outrage expressed in that
resolution over the incident, the loss of life and the
conditions within Cuba that provoked the refugees to flee
their homeland. In addition to President Clinton's
condemnation referred to in the document, the State
Department issued a strong statement on July 22. At Secretary
Christopher's request, our Permanent Representative to the
United Nations wrote to Secretary General Boutros-Ghali to
advise him of the tragedy and to ask him to join in the call
for an investigation. We also informed the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso, of the
incident and suggested that he give it his attention. We
shall continue to work closely with the Secretary General and
High Commissioner in this matter.
Subsequent to the drafting of H. Con. Res. 279, Fidel
Castro relaxed restrictions on the departure of Cubans with
the implicit threat of launching another Mariel exodus, and
the number of Cubans leaving on rafts and other unseaworthy
vessels with a U.S. destination climbed markedly. In the
course of responding to this challenge, the President
stressed on August 20 that we would continue to bring before
the United Nations and other international organizations
evidence of Cuban human rights abuses, such as the sinking of
the tugboat ``13th of March.''
The Office of Management and Budget advises that from the
standpoint of the Administration's program there is no
objection to submission of this report.
I hope this information is useful to you. Please do not
hesitate to call if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Wendy R. Sherman,
Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs.
____
Department of State,
Washington, DC, September, 26, 1994.
Hon. Robert Menendez,
House of Representatives.
Dear Mr. Menendez: Secretary Christopher has asked me to
respond to the letter that Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Diaz
Balart and you sent him on July 28, 1994, regarding the
``13th of March'' tragedy. We regret the delay in responding
to your letter, which arrived just as the recent Cuban
migration crisis began.
We fully share your sense of outrage over the incident, the
loss of life and the conditions within Cuba that provoked the
refugees to flee their homeland. In addition to President
Clinton's condemnation on July 18, the State Department
issued a strong statement on July 22. Ours has not been the
only voice of international outrage. The Archbishop of Havana
called upon the Cuban government to investigate the tragedy;
the governments of Spain and the Czech Republic have made
similar demands.
At Secretary Christopher's request, our Permanent
Representative to the United Nations wrote to Secretary
General Boutros-Ghali to advise him of the tragedy and to ask
him to join in the call for an investigation. We also
informed the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso, of the incident and suggested that
he give it his attention. We shall continue to work closely
with the Secretary General and the High Commissioner in this
matter.
Furthermore, in the course of responding to Castro's
migration challenge, the President stressed on August 20 that
we would continue to bring before the United Nations and
other international organizations evidence of Cuban human
rights abuses, such as the sinking of the tugboat ``13th of
March.''
We hope this information is useful to you. Please do not
hesitate to call if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Wendy R. Sherman,
Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs.
____
Statement by the President
Over the past two weeks, the government of Cuba has taken
actions to provoke a mass exodus to the United States. These
actions have placed thousands of Cuban citizens at risk in
small boats and rafts, and have had a direct impact on our
national interest.
I want to thank the Cuban American community for their
courageous restraint in not taking their own boats to Cuba to
fuel the exodus, and thank the officials of Florida--Governor
Chiles, the congressional delegation, the people from Dade
County and others--who have worked so closely with us.
Yesterday, I announced steps to counter Castro's efforts to
export his problems by provoking an exodus. Today, I'm
announcing additional actions consistent with the Cuban
Democracy Act to limit the ability of the Cuban government to
accumulate foreign exchange and to enable us to expand the
flow of information to the Cuban people.
Specifically, cash remittances to Cuba will no longer be
permitted. Family gift packages will be limited to medicine,
food and strictly humanitarian items; and transfer of funds
for humanitarian purposes will require specific authorization
of the Treasury Department. Second, the only charter flights
permitted between Miami and Havana will be those clearly
designed to accommodate legal immigrants and travel
consistent with the purposes of the Cuban Democracy Act.
Third, the United States will use all appropriate means to
increase and amplify its international broadcasts to Cuba.
The solution to Cuba's many problems is not an uncontrolled
exodus, it is freedom and democracy for Cuba.
The United States will continue to bring before the United
Nations and other international organizations evidence of
human rights abuses, such as the sinking of the tugboat
``13th of March.'' Meanwhile we will pursue this course with
vigor and determination.
Statement of Congressman Robert Menendez
I join my colleagues from Florida and New Jersey in calling
upon the Cuban-American community to continue showing
restraint in the fact of taunts by Fidel Castro to create
another exodus like we had in 1980. Castro continues to
inflict pain upon the Cuban community both in Cuba and in
exile, by seeking to exploit the strong yearning for family
reunification.
However, we all know that the only reason that Castro seeks
to create another Mariel-type exodus is to release the
pressure valve building within Cuba. Castro cannot sustain
the public demonstrations that have taken place in
unprecedented numbers, and the constant civil disobedience
that human rights activists, and average Cubans exhibit by
taking to the seas in search of freedom. He seeks to divert
attention from his own abuse of human rights and acts of
murder, such as the deliberate killing by the Cuban
Government of 40 innocent men, women, and children on the
high seas.
I believe that at long last we are witnessing the beginning
of the end for the Castro dictatorship. Last Friday's
demonstrations represent a watershed event in totalitarian
Cuba, as similar demonstrations did throughout Eastern
Europe. The Cuban people are saying loud and clear that they
no longer fear Fidel. Ladies and gentlemen, the Castro regime
has begun to unravel.
In my view the disturbances will continue. Castro's
headaches will not go away. His grip on power will continue
to loosen as Cuba's failed economy continues to go down the
drain; and, as the Cuban people make clear to Castro: ``Mr.
Dictator, we have absolutely no fear of you.''
However, I call upon the Clinton administration not to play
into Castro's hand by treating this latest threat as simply
an immigration problem. If we do so, we will once again have
let him set the agenda and divert the attention from the real
problem; namely, the lack of economic and political reform.
The real solution to the problem is not the exodus of
100,000 or 200,000 people, but the departure of one tyrant.
The present situation is not only a challenge but an
opportunity. Now is the time to use our technology to make
sure that both radio and television Marti fully penetrates
Cuba so that we can communicate with the Cuban people. We
have the ability to make sure T.V. Marti's signal reaches a
greater part of the population by transmissions from ship to
shore, air to shore, satellite transmissions, or by raising
the level of T.V. Marti's present signal technology. The
powerful images that the average Cuban would see, the risks
of dying at sea, the funerals that have taken place, how we
debate these issues in Congress, as well as the images of
fellow Cubans demonstrating against the dictatorship would
stem the tide of immigration, show how democracy works, and
foster hope for democratic change in Cuba.
The administration must have the will that others have
lacked to give the people of Cuba, who live in a closed
society, an open window on the world. Fidel Castro has
challenged our national security at a time that we find
ourselves busy in both humanitarian missions in Rwanda and
the restoration of democracy in Haiti. It is in the national
interests to respond by providing free and unfettered
information to the Cuban people.
This is also the time to respond to my singular call to
prepare for a post-Castro Cuba. Immediate support for my Free
and Independent Cuba Assistance Act would send a message to
the Cuban people and the international community that we are
in solidarity with the Cuban people, that we want to assist
them, but that we oppose the dictator that enslaves them and
keeps them hungry. Finally, we must break Castro's
stranglehold in making this a problem between Castro and
Washington, or Castro and the exile community in Miami. Since
there are no Democratic elections in Cuba, the Cuban people
are voting with their feet, by risking their lives and
fleeing Cuba. They have also voiced their discontent by
massive demonstrations, funeral observances in defiance of
government admonitions, and other acts of civil disobedience.
It is time for the Clinton administration to seek a
resolution in the United Nations condemning the Castro
Government for the murder of the 40 innocent men, women, and
children aboard the vessel, 13 De Marzo.
It is time for the administration to get other member
countries, especially within the Western Hemisphere, to call
for U.N. human rights observers to be sent to Cuba. They
could observe the admitted actions of the rapid response
brigades' brutality of average Cubans, whom Fidel Castro
calls private citizens not government thugs. Civil society in
Cuba is disintegrating and human rights abuses are at an all
time high.
It is time to internationalize the concern for the rights
of Cuban citizens and break the myth that this is strictly a
Castro versus Washington problem. This is a problem of
hemispheric proportions which those countries who call
themselves democracies cannot ignore as they seek greater
hemispheric integration.
It is time to be proactive, not reactive. It is time to
stop dancing to Castro's tune, and time to change the music.
History will do justice to the Castro dictatorship. Once
Castro wrote, ``History will absolve me.'' Instead, history
will condemn him. Let us not absolve Castro by blaming the
U.S.: The blame rests squarely with Fidel Castro.
____
Transcript of Phone Interview With Survivors--Radio Marti
Last Wednesday, July 13, 1994, a group of approximately 72
people tried to escape from Cuba on the tugboat ``13 de
Marzo'' (Thirteenth of March). Just after sailing from dock
06 at the Port of Havana, they were discovered and chased by
the Castro regime's coast guard. About seven miles from the
port, they were sunk by the regime's forces. What follows are
details concerning this event in which over 20 children died,
among others.
From Havana, translation of testimony of Maritza Exposito
Torres, Vice-President of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba:
``We have obtained the direct testimonies of some of the
survivors of the catastrophe perpetrated by the Cuban
government on over 70 Cubans that were escaping on board a
tugboat from the Port of Havana.
``At dawn on July 13, a tugboat with 72 people on board
left Havana Bay with the intent of clandestinely leaving the
country. This group was comprised of about 30 women, 20
children, ranging in age from four months old to 3, 8 and 10
years of age, and several young people nearing their teen-age
years. The remainder were men.
``The boat left at 3:00 a.m. About 45 minutes later, having
advanced nearly seven miles out to sea, they were intercepted
by another tugboat, this one Japanese-built, which tried to
overturn those aboard in order to throw them into the sea.
Another tugboat soon joined the first one with the same
objective. The refugees were trapped between these two boats,
which then began to spray them with high-pressure water
hoses. These tore the clothes off the women, knocked them
down, and shot the children out of their arms.
``The mothers screamed and implored the attackers to stop
shooting the high-pressure water because they could drown the
young ones and damage the eyes of those on board. The Castro
officials continued using the hoses, trying to asphyxiate the
refugees, including the children. Many of the men, women and
children on board were injured by the water pressure and
thrown violently against the bulwarks of the boat. Seconds
later, a third tugboat appeared and attacked from behind,
splitting in two the refugee's boat, which was an older model
from the World War II era.
``The attackers, upon seeing that the refugees were
struggling to save their lives, continued to try to sink them
by striking their boat and using the water pressure. After
nearly an hour of battling in the open sea, they circled
their ships round the survivors, creating a whirlpool so that
they would drown. Many disappeared into the sea and lost
their lives.
``A `Griffin' then arrived at the scene, picked up the
survivors and took them to Jaimanitas, where they were
detained until 4:00 p.m. that day and later taken to secret
police headquarters at Villa Marista. There, they brought in
personnel to pick up those children that were left without
parents, mothers without their children, wives without their
husbands and so on. The men were all detained, among them the
owner of the boat, Raul by name, who is in Villa Marista.
``As of this moment, the exact number of victims is
unknown, but according to the testimonies of the survivors
Mayda Tacoronte Vega and Maria Garcia Suares, half of the 72
people on board died.
``Among the survivors are: Mayda Tacoronte Vega, 28-years-
old; Milena Labrada Tacoronte, 3-years-old; Ramon Lugo
Martinez, 29-years-old; Daisy, 27-years-old; Darney, 3-years-
old; Susana, 8-years-old; Raul Muniz, 22-years-old; and
Janetta, 18-years-old.
``Among those missing are: Leonardo Notario Gongora, 27-
years-old; Marta Caridad Tacoronte Vega, 36-years-old;
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte, 4-years-old; Yousel Eugenio Perez
Tacoronte, 10-years-old; Magalys Mendez Tacoronte, 16-years-
old; Odalys Muniz Garcia. All are residents of the
municipality of El Cotorro.
``The survivor from the municipality of Guanabacca is named
Maria Luisa Garcia Suarez. Those who have disappeared from
Guanabacoa are: Joel Garcia Suarez, 24-years-old; Mario
Gutierrez, 35-years-old; and the younger son of Maria Luisa
Garcia, 9-years-old.
``The homes of the survivors as well as those of the dead
in this tragedy caused by the government are under the strict
vigilance of the regime's repressive machinery.
``The facts narrated here were verified by Nelson Torres
Pulido, Secretary General of the Pro Human Rights Party of
Cuba (PPDH), Ramon Ferreiro, Municipal Delegate of the PPDH
in El Cotorro, and Leonardo Lauret, activist from the
Municipality of Guanabacoa.''
Testimony of Janet Hernandez Gutierrez, 19 Years of Age, Survivor of
the Intentional Sinking of the Tugboat ``13 De Marzo''
The massacre took place before dawn on July 13, 1994.
When we set sail everything was going very well. There was
no one, nothing in our way, no obstacle. When we were coming
out of the bay we saw two tugboats at the mouth of the bay,
where we were existing. They let us through. But when we were
outside the bay they started throwing cannons of water at us.
Constantly. They did not take them off of us, knowing there
were children * * *
When we reached the seven miles the cannons of water were
high pressure, a terrible force. We were holding the
children, fearful that they would fall. The men were with us,
fearful that we would fall. But so that they would see what
there were women and children aboard, we had to come out on
deck, so that they would be certain of that and would not
commit murder.
When we were at 7 miles, we see that they speed up and they
pull up alongside of us. And then we could not see the Cuban
coast, because we could see nothing; not the lights of the
Malecon [Havana seawall] or of the lighthouse, nothing. They
start hitting our boat, the tugboat ``13 de Marzo''. We were
afraid, not for ourselves, but for the children, Because if
it were just ourselves it would not matter, but there were
children. Children from 5 months of age and up.
When we lifted the children, they saw them--because they
did see them--we started to scream, ``please, please don't do
this'', but they did not listen. Even a young man who was
with us, Roman, who is currently in prison, yelled at one of
the ones in the other tugboat, ``Chino, don't do that. Look,
we have children'', and he showed his three-year-old step-
daughter. If he does not lower the child at that moment the
little girl would have been killed with the cannon of water.
They did not fire weapons at us but they never said ``stop''
with their loudspeaker or nothing. They simply let us exit
the bay and they attacked us at seven miles where there would
be no witnesses. You know that in the open sea there are no
witnesses.
When they continue to hit our boat, a second tugboat comes
up from behind. The biggest one of the tugboats. It was green
with a red stripe, a red line. He hits us and breaks half of
our boat from behind. Then, at the moment, two of the men
almost fall overboard, among them my husband and Roman, the
young man who had yelled that there were children onboard.
When this happens, the boat is unmanned because the
captain, Fidelsio Ramel, is thrown overboard with the cannons
of water. They throw him to the water. He disappeared. He
disappeared just like that. And when Raul, the one who is now
being blamed, realizes that the boat is unmanned, he takes
charge. He had an idea as to how to sail the tugboat
because he had been first-mate of another vessel, not
really related to a tugboat, they were different craft.
Then, with his general idea of sailing, he tries to help,
to save us, because already the boat had taken so much
water from the cannons, because they aimed right to the
hold of the boat, straight for it, in the faces of the
children. The children even had to lower their faces
because they were breathing in the water, swallowing it.
By then we knew we were going to sink, because it was
something I just knew, I had a feeling they were going to
kill us. Because otherwise, they would have stopped. Rual
stopped the tugboat. And when they see that Rual stops it,
they did not forgive that nor respect that Rual did that.
They just sank us * * * in the following manner.
The tugboat that breaks our stern comes around the front.
In other words, there was no way that boat was going to stay
afloat. It was sinking, with all of its weight in the middle
from all those people who were in the hold. There were around
72 people, most of them women and children. Men made up the
least fatalities. But those men [survivors] did what they
could to save us. When we sink, many people float. But the
tugboats reversed and moved back come meters. But they did
not throw us lifesavers not did they offer any type of
assistance. One of the tugboats threw a lifesaver far from
us, so that we would not be able to reach it
When the tugboat broke our stern, a wooden box from our
boat falls to the water, several meters away. When you are in
the water, those meters are far. We could see the box far
away from us and many people were unable to reach it. Then
the whirlpool created by the tugboats swallowed them up. My
sister-in-law, Pilar Almanza Romero and her son Yasel Perodin
Almanza were there. Uncle Gayol, Manuel Gayol, was in the
hold of the boat. Those are three of my family that I lost.
When my husband saw this, you can imagine, he went mad. My
brother-in-law to, but he was trying to gave the other boy.
Then we both tried to reach the other boy. But when I tried
to move I feel that my nephew, the one who drowned, is
holding me by the foot. When I reach for him, he was clinging
to my tennis shoe and he was swept away. I could not reach
him. It was terrible.
Then when I see that my brother-in-law emerged with
Sergito, the youngest of my nephews, I felt tremendous relief
because at least I still had one of them, do you understand?
Then I took him, we kept him.
Then a ``grifin'' arrived [coastguard vessel]. Later a
small speedboat arrived and picked up six or seven people,
including a little girl who looked like a toad, swollen with
all the water. But her mother had managed to save her. The
little girl of three years of age survived. When we saw this
* * *
We stayed until dawn in the ``grifin''. When I boarded the
``grifin'' I insulted them. I told them they were
murderers. I told them everything I could think of. I told
them they have no mercy with children, because here in
Cuba they say that there are many privileges for children
and the old. But they even let old people drown there. And
many children. Nearly 23 children dead there.
The town is in an uproar. People are desperate for a bit of
information, anything that is known about the corpses that
remain captive in the hold of that boat. Roberto Robaina
[Cuba's Minister of Foreign Relations who lied to the world
press about this tragedy], he says that we knew the boat had
a malfunction when we left port. Do you really think that we
would have risked the lives of children and women knowing
there was a malfunction? Knowing that there is so much sea to
cross? Because when you look in a map there does not seem to
be much distance but in real life there are 90 miles, do you
understand? Then they say that that tugboat was a relic of
World War II. That is true. It was very old. Made of wood.
But it had just been repaired. (Some of the victims/survivors
had access to information and to the port itself. They had
knowledge that the boat was in working order.)
When I went to Villa Marista [national headquarters of
State Security or political police] to take my husband and
brother-in-law some personal toiletries, I asked them [Villa
Marista] why did the newspaper report that the boat capsized,
that it sank because of our negligence? I told them that was
not so, asked why they lied. They became extremely agitated.
They asked me what I was inferring. They called me every kind
of name * * * ``worm, counterrevolutionary''. And I accepted
that because I am against this government. And I will say
that anywhere. I know that I will be persecuted, because all
of the survivors are under intense surveillance * * *
But I asked them in Villa Marista that what will become of
those responsible for sinking us, the murderers of our
children and relatives. Because there are children who lost
their mothers. My nephew, for example. He knows he lost her,
because that is the saddest part, that he knows he lost her.
And he asks me in his childlike manner--I wish he were here
because he would be a better witness than I because a child
is worth so much--he asks why the frogmen who dive to put
fish in the aquariums, why can't they recover his mother and
his little brother. (The Cuban government claims they do not
have frogmen available to recover the bodies. Yet they have
an ongoing underwater program to, among other activities,
stock aquariums which are used for the entertainment of
tourists.)
____
This section mentions events after the massacre took place:
The ``Polargo 5'': ``The captain of this tugboat is
Jesusito (Jesus Martinez). He was the one who rammed into us
from behind and cracked the boat, then came to the front and
sank us. This man, coming with this horror, this cynicism,
with that murder he committed, that he provoked, they call
him the hero now at this time, in his company, they are
calling him the hero at his company, the ``Navegacion
Caribe''. Then this ``Polargo 5'', they want to take it to
Nuevitas, to wait for everything to calm down, but what they
don't know is that this isn't going to calm down.
____
Funeral Rally at Fidel Castro's Mission Tomorrow
Today, on the anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban
revolution, the Cuban American community will hold a funeral
rally at Fidel Castro's mission in Washington. The event will
take place in memory of 43 Cuban men, women and children who
were massacred by the Cuban regime last July 13, when their
attempt to escape the island was thwarted by government
forces. The Cuban Catholic bishops in a message to ``all
Catholics and all Cubans'' have called for an investigation,
and his Holiness Pope John Paul II sent a message to the
families of the victims expressing his ``condolences.''
In the early hours of July 13, 1994, an old tugboat sailed
from Havana harbor with 74 persons aboard. Seven miles off
the Cuban coast four government fireboats intercepted them,
opening their power hoses on them. The water barrage knocked
some of the would-be refugees into the ocean. The fireboats
then rammed the tugboat and split it in two, sinking it. 31
people (6 children, 5 women, and 20 men) were rescued by
Cuba's Frontier Guards; 41 people including 14 children
drowned.
According to survivors, those aboard the tugboat had
offered no resistance. The Miami Herald in an editorial also
reprinted in the editorial page of The Washington Post
reported that ``the escapees even held up some of the small
children for the attackers to see, screaming that more than
20 children were on board.'' One of the survivors, Mrs. Maria
Victoria Garcia Suarez, whose ten-year-old son slipped from
her hands while in the water, was interviewed by Miami's TV
Channel 51. She also lost seven other members of her family.
The bishops' statement and the foreign media coverage
forced the Castro government to change its initial
explanation that the tugboat sank due to a leak caused by an
accidental collision. Mrs. Garcia Suarez, who was detained by
State Security police after her TV interview, was released
after her neighbors protested. Others remain in custody. The
Cuban government has tried to prevent memorial services for
the victims, fearing a public demonstration in Havana. The
regime also has refused to recover the bodies of those who
remain inside the sunken tugboat. The Cuban government's
response to the bishops' statement and to international
outrage over the incident has been to increase repression
against the dissidents who protested this massacre, and the
friends and relatives of the victims.
Havana has stepped up its interference with Radio Marti. We
call on the Organization of American States, the United
Nations, and the press, to call Castro to account for this
crime.
Of Human Rights and Casa Cuba urge all people of good will
to join the Cuban American community in a funeral procession
in front of the Cuban Interests Section on 16th St., NW at
noon on July 26, 1994.
We will pay our respects to the memory of these most recent
victims of Fidel Castro on this July 26. The Cuban Revolution
which started on July 26, 1953 is over. While the eyes of the
world focus elsewhere in the Caribbean, Castro's regime now
in its 35th year remains in power through the use of terror.
Cuba Si, Castro No!
____
[From the Miami Herald, July 19, 1994]
Sinking of Tugboat Off Cuba ``Brutal,'' Clinton Says--Symbolic Wakes
Staged in Havana, Sources Report
(By Cynthia Corzo)
The sinking of a refugee-laden tugboat by four Cuban
fireboats Wednesday--an incident in which about 40 people
were reported missing or dead--has aroused the anger of
Cubans on the island and a strong condemnation from President
Clinton.
``It's a human tragedy,'' said Clinton, who was in Miami on
Monday to attend the opening of the National Council of
LaRaza's annual convention. ``I deplore it as . . . another
example of the brutal nature of the Cuban regime.''
According to sources in Cuba, symbolic wakes to honor the
dead have been staged in the Havana suburbs of El Cotorro and
Guanabacoa.
``They're sowing the seeds of the people's wrath,'' David
Buzzi, a human rights activist, said in a phone call from
Havana. ``It's a criminal act and the people cry for
justice.''
A Mass for the dead will be said today at 2 p.m. at the
Havana Cathedral, according to information received Monday by
the Cuban American National Foundation.
Traditionally, public demonstrations in Cuba have been
quashed by the authorities, and demonstrators are often
imprisoned.
``The people have taken to the streets,'' said Mercedes
Marrero, 46, a Miami resident with relatives in Cuatro
Caminos, a Havana neighborhood. Six of those relatives were
in the tugboat; three are missing and presumed dead; three
survived. The tugboat reportedly carried 72 people when it
was rammed and sunk by fireboats. The crews of the fireboats
``committed murder,'' Marrero said. ``Those poor innocent
people [on the tugboat] were seeking freedom.''
A nephew in Cuba told Marrero in a phone call that, after
knocking refugees overboard using high-pressure hoses, the
fireboats made eddies to drag the people underwater.
Most of the people died inside the tugboat, Marrero said,
when the fireboat crews aimed their hoses at the hole and
filled it with water.
Cuban officials in Washington rejected the accounts of the
survivors and their relatives, calling them ``lies.''
``This is all part of the campaign against the Cuban
revolution,'' said Rafael Dausa, a special envoy at the Cuban
Interests Section.
Dausa said the Cuban government ``is doing everything
possible to bring this unpleasant incident to an end.''
____
Murder at Sea
Has our hemisphere grown so used to the Cuban regime's
savagery that it cannot summon a cry of outrage for the
nearly 40 Cuban refugees sent to their watery deaths by Fidel
Castro's government? The ``prudent'' silence over Cuba's
murderous sinking of a tugboat loaded with escapees is
without justification.
Would this complicitous silence greet the murder of
innocent men, women, and children fleeing other places? The
murdered refugees' only crime was to make a desperate attempt
to flee Cuba. Soon after the group of 72 began their escape
aboard a decrepit tug, Cuban fire fighting boats attacked
them. According to eyewitnesses, the refugees signaled their
readiness to surrender and to return to port. The escapees
even held up some of the small children for the attackers to
see, screaming that more than 20 children were on board.
Such pleas did not deter Castro's men, who turned potent
fire hoses on the refugee vessel, sweeping passengers
overboard. The pursuit craft then rammed the tugboat
repeatedly, capsizing it. Tragically, all of the children
hiding in the tug's hold apparently died. The adult survivors
are in jail. Where on earth is a mute world's conscience?
Countries with substantial investments in Cuba--Spain,
Mexico, and a few others--have a special obligation to
denounce this crime perpetrated by Cuba's government against
the unarmed refugees. Like investors in the South Africa of
apartheid. Cuba's foreign business partners ought to feel
particularly ashamed of the actions of the regime that their
capital is helping to sustain.
Has our hemisphere grown so used to the Cuban regime's
savagery that it cannot summon a cry of outrage for the
nearly 40 Cuban refugees sent to their watery deaths by Fidel
Castro's government? The ``prudent'' silence over Cuba's
murderous sinking of a tugboat loaded with escapees is
without justification.
Would this complicitous silence greet the murder of
innocent men, women and children fleeing other places? The
murdered refugees' only crime was to make a desperate attempt
to flee Cuba. Soon after the group of 72 began their escape
about a decrepit tug, Cuban fire-fighting boats attacked
them. According to eyewitnesses, the refugees signaled their
readiness to surrender and to return to port. The escapees
even held up some of the small children for the attackers to
see, screaming that more than 20 children were on board.
Such pleas did not deter Castro's men, who turned potent
fire hoses on the refugee vessel, sweeping passengers
overboard. The pursuit craft then rammed the tugboat
repeatedly, capsizing it. Tragically, all of the children
hiding in the tug's hold apparently died. The adult survivors
are in jail. Where on earth is a mute world's conscience?
Countries with substantial investments in Cuba--Spain,
Mexico and a few others--have a special obligation to
denounce this crime perpetrated by Cuba's government against
the unarmed refugees. Like investors in the South Africa of
apartheid, Cuba's foreign business partners ought to feel
particularly ashamed of the actions of the regime that their
capital is helping to sustain.
____
Church Assails Tugboat Tragedy
Havana.--Cuba's Roman Catholic Church Tuesday condemned the
sinking of a tugboat stolen by a group of Cubans trying to
leave the island, calling it ``in no way accidental,'' and
demanded that those responsible be held accountable.
Archbishop Jaime Ortega, the head of the church in Cuba,
condemned the tragedy in a forceful statement on the sinking,
allegedly after the tugboat was rammed by a government vessel
trying to intercept it, and delays in rescue efforts.
Some 40 refuge seekers, including women and children, are
reported to have drowned in the sinking.
``This adds to the pain, a sense of astonishment and a
demand for the facts to be cleared up and for
responsibilities to be cleansed,'' Ortega said in his
statement.
``The violent and tragic events that produced the sinking
of a boat where so many of our brothers lost their lives are,
according to the accounts given by survivors, of a roughness
that can scarcely be imagined.''
Cuban authorities have said that 31 people were rescued and
an unstated number of people were missing after the tug sank
before dawn last Wednesday, north of Havana.
One survivor, however, told foreign reporters last Friday
that the stolen tugboat was sprayed for some time with
pressure hoses by pursuing vessels. She said it sank after
being hit on one side.
Ortega's statement said it was known that the church did
not condone people trying to leave the island in fragile
vessels, sometimes with small children on board. ``But the
magnitude and the causes of this tragedy give it different
characteristics,'' he said.
An Interior Ministry statement, over the weekend, said that
the tugboat used by the group, a Transport Ministry Maritime
Services vessel, was leaking before it was stolen.
____
Cuba Blames U.S. Policy in Tugboat Deaths
(By Mimi Whitefield)
Cuban Armed Forces Minister Raul Castro chastised the
United States for whipping up ``anti-Cuba hysteria'' Tuesday
and blamed U.S. policy toward Cuba for the recent deaths at
sea of more than 30 Cubans fleeing their homeland.
In a rare turn of events, President Fidel Castro ceded
delivery of the traditional July 26 speech that commemorates
the beginning of the Cuban revolution to his brother, the
second secretary of Cuba's Communist Party.
However, the Cuban leader was seated in the first row
during the 45-minute speech delivered on the Isle of Youth
off Cuba's southwestern coast.
``For the lives lost in the depths of the ocean, the U.S.
administration must stand in first place among the accused
for its permanent aggressive attitude against our country,
including the immigration policy toward Cuban citizens,''
Raul Castro said.
U.S. policy, he said, encourages Cubans to leave the island
in flimsy rafts and hijacked boats and planes because they
are treated as heroes when they arrive by such means, while
at the same time they are blocked from migrating legally
because the United States issues so few visas.
``The gates of our country are open to those who want to
emigrate legally,'' said Castro. Despite his claims, Havana
has held up exit visas for years in some politically
sensitive cases.
Castro criticized the organizers of all ill-fated July 13
expedition to the United States that ended when a Cuban
government vessel rammed a hijacked tugboat, causing it to
sink. Havana says it was an accident; some survivors say
otherwise.
Thirty-one people were rescued, but 32 others apparently
drowned when the tug went down seven miles out to sea after
being pursued by government vessels.
Castro said the wooden tugboat was 115 years old, seaworthy
only inside the port of Havana and was meant to carry only
four people.
The pursuing Cuban boats, he said, tried to prevent the
tugboat from making a ``death trip'' because it was
``destined to sink well before it would reach port.'' He did
not acknowledge any role the pursuing Cuban boats may have
played in causing the tragedy.
And Castro said that neither the U.S. State Department nor
the Senate nor President Clinton ``had any right to meddle in
an event that is under the exclusive jurisdiction'' of Cuba.
The United States has been highly critical of Cuba's role in
the tragedy.
``We reject with all our energy the anti-Cuba campaign and
the interference in our affairs by the United States,'' he
said.
The fact that the armed forces minister devoted so much of
his speech to the tugboat incident is an indication of the
consternation that incident has provoked inside Cuba. This
week the two main topics of conversation in Havana were the
sinking of the tugboat and the food shortage.
Still, the fact that Raul Castro gave the July 26 speech
nearly overshadowed what he had to say.
Cuba officials said Fidel Castro didn't give the speech as
he traditionally does because it followed so closely on the
heels of his two-day visit to Colombia for the signing of the
document creating the Association of Caribbean states.
``There's nothing mysterious about this. He [Raul] has
given the speech a few times in the past. It's because Fidel
was out of the country,'' said Rafael Dausa, a spokesman at
the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.
But the Cuban head of state was back on the island Monday
evening--in plenty of time to make the ceremony marking the
41st anniversary of the assault on Moncada Barracks, the
failed attack that is regarded as the first battle in the
Cuban revolution.
Among diplomats there were two other schools of thought on
why Raul gave this year's speech. One was that with the Cuban
economy in such dismal shape, there would be little good news
to report and Fidel Castro preferred to keep his distance.
Another was that by allowing Raul to give the speech it
would strengthen his image and showcase him as a potential
Cuban leader. Raul, 63, is the heir apparent to his older
brother, who will be 68 in August.
``This may be an attempt to bring Raul out of the shadows
as well as to try to give the impression that Fidel is taking
something of a back seat, that he's not the only one running
the show,'' said Wayne Smith, who headed the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982.
Party leaders say the Isle of Youth was chosen as the
center of this year's national holiday in homage to Cuba's
youth--a numerically important group that has become
increasingly disenchanted with the revolution.
Some 45 percent of the Cuban population is 30 years or
younger, and thousands of Cuban and foreign students attend
boarding schools on the Isle of Youth and help cultivate its
citrus crop.
Since the Communist Party Congress in 1991, a process has
been under way to bring a younger generation of Cubans into
leadership positions.
``There have always been people for whom the concepts of
homeland and independence don't signify anything . . . but
the immense majority of our people profoundly love their
homeland and its history,'' Raul Castro said.
____
Demonstrators at Cuban Mission in Washington Protest Tugboat Sinking
Washington.--More than 100 people rallied outside Cuba's
diplomatic mission Tuesday to protest an incident in which
about 40 Cubans reportedly drowned after their tugboat was
rammed by government fireboats during an escape attempt.
According to reports, this tugboat was intercepted seven
miles at sea on July 13 by four fireboats, which sprayed the
vessel with power hoses before ramming it.
Thirty-one of those aboard were rescued.
A call by the archbishop of Havana for a full investigation
has received support from the State Department.
Several of the demonstrators involved in the Tuesday
protest were detained after chaining themselves to a fence at
the Cuban mission. Among them was Armando Valladares, former
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
The protest occurred on the 1st anniversary of President
Fidel Castro's debut as a guerrilla fighter.
____
Calling Cuba To Account
Did we need yet another example of how brutally inhumane
the Castro government is? Should further proof be needed,
none could be more graphic than the deliberate sinking by
Cuban government vessels of a boatload of refugees July 13.
Bad as they are, not even the generals in Haiti have resorted
to such means.
More than 70 people were packed on an ancient tugboat from
Havana when the ship was intercepted at sea, seven miles from
Cuba's shores en route to Florida. Despite the fact that the
refugees immediately surrendered, they were sprayed with
waterguns from one ship, which knocked them over and knocked
children out of their mother's arms. Many were swept off the
deck and into the sea. Two other government ships rammed the
hull of the tugboat, which split in two and sank.
Some 40 people perished in the tumultuous waters, as well
as an uncertain number of children seeking protection from
the waterguns in the hull of the ship. One survivor,
interviewed on video by a group of foreign journalists in
Havana, told of finding herself in the water trying to save
her young son, holding on even after the child had drowned,
but finally having to let go from sheer exhaustion.
Eventually, a Cuban coast guard vessel appeared and picked up
survivors, about 31 people. The men were sent to prison. The
women and children were released, but continue to be under
surveillance.
President Clinton, during his trip to Miami July 18,
denounced the act as an ``example of Cuban brutality,'' and
so it certainly is. Many others have protested as well. On
Friday, the Senate passed an amendment to the State,
Commerce, Justice Appropriations Bill condemning the action
and requesting U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright to urge an
investigation of the incident as well as to demand the
release of the survivors. That would seem the least we can
do. And most visibly, of course, a group of Cuban-American
protesters on Tuesday blocked the entrance to the Cuban
Interests Section on 16th Street NW in protest. They asked
that the Cuban government hand over the bodies of the dead
retrieved from the hull of the ship, which Havana has refused
to do, as it has refused to open an investigation.
As might be expected, the Cuban government has rather a
different story. It goes something like this: The ship was
old and unseaworthy; it sank by an accidental collision with
one of the other ships; the survivors were only rescued by
the unselfish efforts of Cuban sailors. Furthermore, it's all
the fault of the nasty American government. The refugees
wouldn't have been at sea at all, were it not for the
dastardly U.S. policy of enticing them to Florida with
promises of asylum--so Cuba's first deputy president, Raul
Castro, brother of Fidel, ranted in a speech on Tuesday.
Perhaps you could turn Mr. Castro's argument around. These
people wouldn't have been at sea in the first place had they
not lived in a country governed by a regime so awful that the
use of terror is the only way to make its people stay.
____
Story of Tug's Sinking Incited Cubans--Drownings That Launched Exodus
of Rafters May Be Portent
(By Tod Robberson)
Guanabacoa, Cuba, Sept. 10--An aging tugboat crumbled
beneath its terrorized passengers on the high seas. By the
survivors' account, water pounded against them as weary men,
women and children gasped for air and tried to keep afloat.
Mothers desperately tried to tread water with one hand while
clutching infants, then finally lost their grips and
condemned their babies to death by drowning. Help was a hand
on other boats, but they turned away.
The story is not among those of the 20,000 Cuban raft
people who set out to sea over the last month after President
Fidel Castro opened the doors to emigration, Rather, it is
the survivors' version of what happened earlier, when
Castro's Communist government attempted to crack down on
those attempting to flee.
After Friday's accord with the United States calling on
Cuba to halt the exodus of raft people, the story of 68
passengers aboard the tugboat 13th of March looms as a
precedent for what might happen now that Castro has pledged
to close the door once again.
During the predawn hours of July 13, three tugboats were
dispatched from the port authority of Havana to follow the
commandeered 13th of March out to sea. By the account of
interviewed survivors--disputed by Castro and the official
press--when the tug was seven miles offshore the authority's
boats pummeled passengers on its deck with water cannon, then
systematically sank the boat by ramming it in unison until it
broke apart. Crew members refused to help survivors out of
the water. Two Cuban military gunboats stood a few hundred
yards away while the demolition was underway.
At least 37 passengers from the 13th of March drowned,
while 31 survivors lived to retell a story that circulated
throughout this island nation and prompted the Cuban
migration crisis of 1994.
Over the succeeding three weeks, three other passenger
boats, a military craft and an airplane were commandeered.
Street demonstration erupted, culminating Aug. 5 in a Havana
riot in which civilians killed two policemen and gravely
injured a third. On Aug. 6, Castro announced a new policy
lifting all restrictions on emigration by sea. Many here
are calling the tugboat saga ``Cuba's version of Tiananmen
Square.''
Six survivors from the 13th of March recounted their ordeal
during interviews this week here and in the neighboring town
of La Magdalena, near Havana.
``It all started with us,'' said Maria Victoria Garcia, 28,
who until 4 a.m. on July 13 was the mother of a 10-year-old
boy, Juan Mario. ``What happened that morning was
premeditated murder. It was a massacre.''
The 13th of March was a wooden 115-year-old tug that was
docked in Havana. Two tugboat captains from Guanabocoa who
worked at the port, Fidencio Ramel Prieto, 51, and Raul Munoz
Garcia, 22, met secretly in early July and agreed to organize
a small group of family members, sneak them aboard the
recently renovated boat and, under cover of darkness, set out
for Florida. By the time the group entered Havana port at 3
a.m., it had swollen to an unwieldy 68 people, varying in age
from less than 12 months to 60 years.
Ramel was deputy director of the port as well as secretary
in the labor division of Cuba's Communist Party, and among
the nation's most experienced mariners. He had been chosen to
fly to the Netherlands in 1987 to take possession of five new
tugboats purchased by Cuba to replace its aging fleet. Three
of the tugs he guided across the Atlantic in 1987 were used
to hunt him down on July 13, and crush his 51-foot craft into
splinters.
Ramel and Garcia both knew that security at the port was
minimal from midnight to dawn and they would have few
problems sneaking onto the 13th of March.
``Nobody tried to stop us,'' said Jorge Cuba Suarez, 24, a
neighbor of Ramel's family here. ``After we got out of the
port, another tugboat started following us. They could have
turned us back at any time but they didn't.'' He said Ramel
ordered everyone to remain in the hold until they had reached
international waters.
``We spent about an hour down blow and then Raul yelled for
all women and children to come to the deck,'' said Matia
Tacornte Vega, 36, of La Magdalena. ``I went up and could see
that two tugboats were right next to us. Ramel wanted us on
deck to show them we were just a bunch of women and
children.''
Tacoronte said the tugboats began ``shooting water at us''
from water cannon mounted atop their helms, and Ramel shut
down his boat's engine.
Then, without warning, one tugboat rammed the 13th of March
from behind. ``I was standing right there when it happened,''
recalled Maria Victoria, who is Ramel's daughter. ``The force
knocked everybody down. We had to grab anything we could just
to keep from falling into the water.
Another tug punched a hole in the hull of the 13th of
March, the survivors said, and a third joined in the ramming.
``The entire deck buckled. It separated completely from the
hull. I started sliding into the water and I remember
thinking, ``We're all going to die,''' Maria Victoria said.
``Most of the men were still down below,'' said Daysi
Martinez Fundora, 26, ``we all started screaming, `Please,
mother of God! We're all Cubans. At least save our children!'
But the crew members on the other boats just stared at us.''
In less than five minutes the 13th of March had sunk, with
more than two dozen people still hiding in its hold.
Tacoronte said she and other mothers clutched their children
while grabbing anything afloat to keep their heads above
water.
``I don't know why, but they kept shooting water at us. I
couldn't open my mouth to breathe.'' Tacoronte said she
refused to let go of her 3-
Interviews have been difficult because many of the male
survivors were kept in jail after their rescue. Raul Munoz
remains in prison. Garcia said he was jailed for 12 days.
Maria Victoria's brother, Ivan Suarez, said he was held for
22 days. Women and children were allowed to go home after a
few hours of questioning.
Official accounts of the incident printed in the government
newspaper Granma said the 13th of March sank after an
``accident'' in which one of the government tugboats collided
with it while attempting to rescue the passengers.
``If they had tried to rescue us my boy would be alive
today,'' Maria Victoria said.
Granma confirmed the water cannon were used but said they
were directed at the boat's smokestack and helm in an attempt
to shut down its engine. Granma blamed the accident on Ramel
and Munoz while quoting Munoz from prison as saying that
Ramel ``knew the boat was unseaworthy'' but had deliberately
risked setting out to sea.
Granma also said the rescue attempts were made difficult by
rough seas that morning. All survivors interviewed said the
sea was calm. Maria Victoria's parents compiled a scrapbook
to chronicle the deaths of more than a dozen family members
who were passengers. Pasted onto one page are the official
weather reports from July 13 as well as the day before and
day after. All described clear weather and calm seas.
In an Aug. 24 speech, Castro called the disaster the first
incident in the current migration crisis but said ``it
remains proven that the authorities had absolutely nothing to
do with this accident.''
Ester Suarez, Ramel's wife, disputed government assertions
that her husband was a ``counterrevolutionary'' and a
traitor. ``He was a senior member of the Communist Party.
He was devoted,'' she said, pulling out Ramel's party
membership booklet. ``Look, Fidel signed his booklet
personally.''
``I think Fidel really believes this was an accident. They
have lied to him,'' Maria Victoria said. ``He needs to know
the truth, that this was murder.'' She said Communist Party
officials had offered to give her a new house, fully
furnished, if she would agree to keep quiet about the
incident, but she refused.
On Aug. 3, two days after Ivan Suarez was released from
jail, he and his mother were returning to Guanabacoa from a
shopping trip to Havana. They boarded a 194-passenger ferry,
La Coubre, that would carry them past the dock where the 13th
of March had been moored.
Suddenly the ferry's engines surged and the boat lurched
toward the sea. La Coubre had been hijacked. Two hours later,
Ivan and Ester Suarez were in international waters. A U.S.
Coast Guard ship pulled alongside and an announcement was
made that anyone aboard who wanted to seek asylum would be
allowed to travel to a detention center near Miami.
``Ivan looked at me and I told him I could not go. My
family needed me at home,'' Ester Suarez said. ``He decided
to come back with me.''
Seventy-six passengers chose to return to Cuba, where they
received a hero's welcome and personal expressions of
gratitude from Castro. ``In two days, Ivan went from being a
prisoner and an example of national disgrace to being a
national hero,'' Ester Suarez said. ``This is Cuba.''
Maria Victoria said she kept one arm wrapped around 10-
year-old Juan Mario for about 30 minutes, while holding onto
a large wooden box floating in the water and while 10 other
people flailed about trying to maintain their grip on it.
Someone's foot hit Maria Victoria's arm, causing her to
lose her grip on Juan Mario. ``He disappeared. Someone
screamed. `Grab Juan Mario. He's going down!' But he was
gone. I never saw my little boy again,'' Maria Victoria said,
adding that she now is taking prescription tranquilizers and
receiving psychiatric treatment.
Jorge Luis Garcia said the survivors pleaded with crew
members on the three tugboats to rescue them, ``but they just
stared at us. One man stood on the deck with his arms
crossed. I couldn't believe it. They were trying to make us
drown.''
At about 5 a.m., two Cuban navy gunboats moved in and
fished 31 people from the waters. They circled for six hours
without finding any other survivors, then headed back to
Havana. Capt. Ramel and at least 15 other men perished, along
with four boys, three girls and 13 women.
Cuban human rights workers say they are still trying to
interview survivors to compile a full list of everyone on the
boat. ``There might be more dead but we won't know until
we've visited every survivor's home,'' said Elizardo Sanchez
Santa Cruz, president of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights
and National Reconciliation.
[From the Miami Herald, July 7, 1993]
U.S. Rips Cuba's ``Extreme Cruelty''--Protests Three Killings Near Base
(By Christopher Marquis and David Hancock)
Washington.--Cuban marine patrols, determined to stop
refugees from reaching the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay,
have repeatedly tossed grenades and shot at fleeing swimmers
and recovered some bodies with gaff hooks, U.S. officials
charged Tuesday.
At least three Cubans have been killed in the past month as
Cuban patrol boats attacked swimmers within sight of U.S.
Navy personnel at Guantanamo.
The killings are the latest sign that Cuba is resorting to
violent means to stop a torrent of desperate people from
fleeing the impoverished island.
``This is the most savage kind of behavior I've ever heard
of,'' said Robert Gelbard, deputy assistant secretary of
state for Latin America. The United States has no previous
record of such activity in Cuba, he added, calling the
practice ``even worse than what happened at the Berlin
Wall.''
The Clinton administration filed a formal protest Monday
with the government of President Fidel Castro, calling on
Havana to ``immediately cease these barbaric practices,''
said a State Department aide.
News of the attacks at Guantanamo comes amid a fierce
crackdown by Cuban authorities on residents who try to leave
the country.
On Thursday, Cuban patrols killed three people who tried to
swim to a U.S.-registered speedboat near the town of Cojimar.
The captain, a U.S. citizen and Florida Keys resident, was
injured in a hail of bullets. A fifth man, also from South
Florida, escaped.
In separate incidents Friday and Monday, authorities seized
boats near Havana and Santa Cruz del Norte, arresting
seven U.S. residents as they sought to help scores of
relatives flee the island.
The men captured Monday were Cuban rafters who had spent
only two months in this country.
``My brother did not want to live without his wife and two
children,'' said Camilo Bourzac, 28, whose brother Ernesto,
31, is now in jail on the island.
u.s. charges ``extreme cruelty''
The attacks on swimmers in Guantanamo Bay drew especially
sharp criticism because the refugees might easily have been
detained without violence, U.S. officials said. ``The idea of
blowing people up when they are vulnerable underwater is
appalling,'' Gelbard said.
A State Department aide called the use of gaffs, usually
used to pull gamefish into boats, to pull bodies from the
water ``an act of extreme cruelty.''
According to the U.S. protest, U.S. military guards
surveying the bay have witnessed five separate incidents:
On June 19 at 2 p.m., U.S. guards, startled by the sounds
of detonations, saw Cuban troops aboard patrol boats dropping
grenades in the paths of several swimmers headed for the U.S.
base.
On June 20 at 1:30 p.m., Cuban troops repeated the action,
then strafed the water with machine-gun fire.
On June 26 at 11 a.m., three patrol boats surrounded a
group of swimmers, lobbing grenades and spraying them with
automatic weapons fire. At least three corpses were lifted
out of the water with gaffs.
On June 27 at 11:30 a.m., guards aboard patrol boats lobbed
two grenades into the water.
On the same day, just before 3 p.m., a patrol boat opened
automatic fire on a group of swimmers, who were later seen
being pulled from the water. The swimmers' status was
unknown.
U.S. officials said they did not know how many people had
been killed in the recent Guantanamo incidents, but said at
least three could not have survived the attacks.
The number of Cuban seeking to reach Guantanamo, where they
can apply for political asylum, has surged this year.
The base, which remains the last Western outpost in a
Communist nation, reports that 195 Cubans have reached the
facility this year, more than the total of 152 for all of
1992.
The statistic stands in even greater contrast to the years
prior to the end of the Cold War: in 1988, 21 Cubans reached
the Guantanamo base; in 1989, there were only 12.
About 90 percent of the refugees come by sea, crossing the
bay waters in small craft or by swimming. Fences, guard posts
and several strips of minefields deter those attempting to
enter the base by land.
U.S. diplomats who presented the protest note to the
Foreign Ministry in Havana warned that the use of explosives
so close to the U.S. base could be considered a ``provocative
act.''
boat incident also protested
The diplomats also lodged a separate protest Monday of last
Thursday's shooting against the Key West-registered
speedboat, the Midnight Express.
A Washington source said Tuesday that the boat's pilot,
Ricky Hoddinott, who suffered gunshot wounds to the legs,
told a U.S. diplomat that he and Hugo Portilla, a Cuban exile
living in Miami, had traveled to Cuba to pick up five or six
people.
However, when the Midnight Express approached Cojimar,
between 50 and 100 people were waiting on the beach. About 30
jumped aboard and the boat began pulling away. At that point,
Cuban Frontier Guards opened fire.
Hoddinott told the official that he raised his hands in
surrender but the guards continued firing. Cuban officials
said the troops were firing at the engines to disable the
boat.
The State Department has not determined whether any of the
others jailed in Cuba over the weekend are U.S. citizens.
Cuban officials in Washington defended the crackdown on
illegal entries into Cuban territory.
``We are going to continue picking up all boats that keep
arriving in Cuban waters with the goal of smuggling people,''
said Jose Luis Ponce, spokesman for the Cuban Interests
Section in Washington. ``We are not going to allow them to
continue violating our sovereignty.''
____
Arrest May Signal New Cuban Push Against Dissidents
(By Mimi Whitefield)
Human rights monitors say they fear the detention of
Francisco Chaviano, a leading advocate for rafters who was
compiling a list of Cubans who have disappeared at sea, could
mark an escalation of repression against leaders of Cuban
dissident groups.
Chaviano is being held at Villa Marista state security
headquarters and apparently will be charged with revealing
state secrets. He was arrested May 7, shortly after a man he
didn't know visited his home and left documents that
allegedly detailed human rights problems.
Family members said Chaviano hadn't even had time to read
the papers when state security agents arrived and took him to
Villa Marista.
``He has never worked with state secrets'' and has been
very public about his work in defense of human rights.
Chaviano's wife, Ana Aguililla, told the Spanish news agency
EFE.
Aguililla also told diplomats in Havana that at first the
government was considering charging Chaviano with illicit
enrichment, but now he is being accused of the more serious
charge, which carries a penalty of four to 10 years, or eight
to 15 years if the accused learned of the secrets through
illegal means.
``It looks like a provocation,'' said Ricardo Bofill,
president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.
Moises Rodriguez Quesada, spokesman for the Coordinating
Council of Human Rights Organizations in Cuba, issued a
statement, denouncing the government's action, Chaviano is
co-president of the umbrella group and also is president of
the National Council of Civil Rights in Cuba.
escalation of repression
``In my opinion the detention of Professor Chaviano, an
honest and peaceful defender of human rights, could mark the
beginning of a true escalation of repression, intolerance and
covert actions of the repressive apparatus to break up the
small militant opposition and try to discredit its leaders,''
the statement said.
Bofill said there is a developing trend in Cuba of charging
leading dissidents--especially those involved in collecting
denunciations of human rights abuses--with more serious
crimes and sentencing them to longer prison terms.
``One hypothesis is that the government is trying to
diminish the flow of denunciations abroad,'' he said.
For the past three years Chaviano's group has been
investigating Cubans who have lost their lives trying to make
the treacherous ocean crossing to Florida.
State security agents seized all the documents related to
rafters' disappearances, as well as other papers, when they
searched Chaviano's home in the seaside town of Jaimanitas.
The homes of four other members of Chaviano's group were also
searched.
documented rafter epidemic
Chaviano, a former mathematics teacher, was trying to
document as precisely as possible the names, ages, addresses,
dates of departure and circumstances under which rafters
disappeared.
``It's like an epidemic--like alcoholism. It's claiming so
many lives,'' said Chaviano in 1991 when he began making the
list.
``Inside the island, Chaviano was really the key player in
this investigation,'' Bofill said. ``It's very difficult
work.''
Bofill said it was unclear whether any copies are available
of Chaviano's work on rafters.
Chaviano, who spent a year in prison after he was caught
trying to leave Cuba in a leaky boat in March, 1989, was one
of the founders of the Cuban Rafters Council, a group that
tried to defend the rights of Cubans imprisoned for ``illegal
flight.''
His interests later evolved to include a more general
defense of human rights, but he still took a special interest
in the plight of rafters.
Chaviano's detention came shortly before a new report by
the Organization of American States' Inter-American Human
Rights Commission began circulating among OAS member nations.
It contains a 20-page section on Cuba that expresses concern
that respect for human rights in Cuba is on the verge of a
further decline.
``The accentuated repression of independent organizations
by the Cuban government, and the very grave economic
difficulties that the Cuban people face, have provoked
situations whose evolution foresees a marked deterioration of
Cuban society in general and the human rights situation in
particular,'' noted the report, which will be formally
released in June.
cuba cited for other abuses
The OAS report also faults Cuba for the high number of
Cubans imprisoned for long periods before trial, the use of
psychiatry as a form of intimidation against those
disaffected with the regime, and stiff sentences meted out to
Cubans accused of trying to destroy the political system and
those convicted under the catch-all crime of dangerousness.
Bofill said a growing number of dissidents have been
arrested in recent years after being approached by people who
said they had inside knowledge of human rights abuses.
Among them are Yndamiro Restano and his assistant Maria
Elena Aparicio, who were sentenced to 10 years and seven
years, respectively, in 1992. Their arrests came a short time
after Restano was approached by military men who said they
wanted to talk about human rights abuses within the armed
forces, Bofill said.
Also in 1992, Omar del Pozo was accused for revealing state
secrets. He is now serving a 15-year sentence. The chief
witness against him was a police agent who had infiltrated
del Pozo's human rights group.
Despite the tendency toward longer prison terms, Bofill
said Havana's strategy has only been partially successful.
``There is more repression; there are more people in prison
now, but the number of denunciations [of abuses presented by
human rights activists] hasn't decreased at all.'' Bofill
said.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the sponsor of this
resolution, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez], and others
joining in this debate today, for focusing our attention on this brutal
and deliberate violation of human rights.
The 40 innocent people who lost their lives at sea on July 13, 1994,
will not have died in vain if the world holds Fidel Castro and his
repressive security apparatus accountable for this ruthless act.
Mr. Speaker, the United States is often accused of being obsessed
with Cuba, particularly Castro's human rights record. I would submit
that if ours were the last government on earth willing to press this
issue, we should continue to do so.
Moreover, we should stand our ground with other countries and
organizations that appear far too willing to react to the rhetoric
about U.S. policy toward Cuba and then ignore the cold, hard facts
about Castro's repression. Too often, these cases are met with silence.
For those who wonder what drives our tough Cuba policy, ask Maria
Victoria Garcia, a survivor who lost her husband, her 10-year-old son,
her brother, three uncles, and two cousins who died in this deliberate
attack on a doomed Cuban tugboat.
I support the resolution and commend its sponsor, Mr. Menendez. I
understand that in the course of drafting this language some concrete
assurances were made by the Administration and our representatives at
the O.A.S. and U.N. that they will press the Cuba human rights issue
with new vigor. We will monitor their efforts and hold them to that
pledge.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege in joining with
Congressman Robert Menendez and 13 of my colleagues as a sponsor of H.
Con. Res. 279, which condemns the government of Cuba for the deliberate
sinking of a tugboat called the ``13th of March'' and for the Cuban
government's cailous disregard for the lives of its 72 passengers. I
strongly urge my colleagues to support passage of this resolution.
The sinking of the ``13th of March'' was completely avoidable. Still,
37 people, including women, infants and children, drowned as a result
of this murderous act--yet another example of the Cuban government's
officially-sanctioned policy of terror toward its own citizens.
According to survivors, the ``13th of March'' set sail from Havana
but was soon followed by three tugboats from the port authority of
Havana.
These government vessels could have stopped the ``13th of March'' at
any time. Instead, in the pre-dawn hours of July 13, 1994, when the
``13th of March'' was 7 miles off the Cuban shore, the authority's tugs
pounded the passengers with water cannon and then rammed the helpless
tugboat until it sunk only 5 minutes later. Two Cuban military gunboats
were positioned a few hundred yards away observing while the ramming
was underway.
As the helpless victims struggled in the water to hold onto life, the
crews of the authority's tugs stood by and watched dozens drown.
Finally, the Cuban gunboats moved in to fish out of the water the
remaining survivors--fewer than half of the passengers.
Mr. Speaker, with this resolution today we go on record condemning
this criminal act, an act which horrifies all civilized people. The
helpless victims of the ``13th of March'' will not be forgotten.
Let there be no mistake in anyone's mind of the true nature of
Castro's own cruel brand of repression of the people of Cuba. And also
let there be no doubt that, despite this completely avoidable tragedy,
the valiant people of Cuba will never give up.
The days are numbered for Castro's brutal dictatorship. It will not
prevail, and the people of Cuba will one day live in their proud land
in peace and freedom.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. de la Garza). The question is on the
motion offered by the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] that the
House suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con.
Res. 279, as amended.
The question was taken.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 5, rule
1, and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this
motion will be postponed.
____________________