Last Friday, a Cuban family stole a boat from the port of Mariel, belonging to the Island Government, with the aim of leaving the country and heading towards the United States. According to Daniel Calvo, a Miami resident, he does not have details of how the boat was stolen, the only thing he knows is that his brother Evelio left with relatives and that “there are many minors.”
Calvo told the journalist Mario J. Penton, his concern at the lack of information about his brother, who stole the boat. “I don’t know what happened. Nothing is known so far. The Cuban government is saying nothing and neither are the United States Coast Guard.”
State Security agents, Calvo pointed out, are creating rumors about the event. Among the accusations that the Cuban political police are disseminating are that the island’s coast guards chased the boat, then returned it to the place where they usually keep it and that the crew members were taken to Villa Marista.
“What I think is that they were rescued by the American Coast Guard and they returned the boat themselves,” Calvo confided. “In any case, we fear for my brother’s life.”
However, relatives have not been able to confirm any rumours. “What I think is that they were rescued by the American Coast Guard and they returned the boat themselves,” Calvo confided. “In any case, we fear for my brother’s life. This is not the first time this has happened in Cuba.”
Calvo expressed his fear that his brother and the people who were with him will be punished by the Cuban government, and as has happened on previous occasions, “take violence to punish those who try to leave the country by this means.”
That fateful April 11, 2003 comes to mind, when Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla and Jorge Martínez were found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime of terrorism, while seven other detainees were sentenced for participating in the attempted kidnapping of the boat Baraguawhich made the journey between Regla and Old Havana, in order to reach the United States.
Cuban lawyer Laritza Diversent specified that in the legal process that was followed against Copello, Sevilla and Martínez “there was a complete violation” of their rights. “The judges who signed the sentence, and the intellectuals who expressed their approval in a document that was made public at the time, made up for a tremendous injustice,” he told Radio and Television Martí.
That fateful April 11, 2003 comes to mind, when Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla and Jorge Martínez were found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime of terrorism after the kidnapping of a boat
Copello, Sevilla and Martínez were shot nine days after their arrest. Ramona Copello, mother of one of the defendants, wakefulness to the same media outlet in 2016, that the relatives of the young people were never notified of the sentence. “A colonel told me on Thursday that we had to wait for the papers to come down from the Council of State, however, the next day, Friday, they woke up dead,” he specified.
The flight of Cubans by sea has not diminished despite the hurricane season. According to figures for the fiscal year that began in October 2021, the number of 6,052 rafters intercepted in their attempt to reach the US already exceeds the total of the previous five years. In 2017 they arrested 1,468; in 2018 there were 259; in 2019, 313; in 2020, 49; and in 2021, 838, according to official figures.
This Monday, the Border Patrol reported that 50 Cubans were taken into custody last weekend after making landfall in Key West. The three makeshift boats in which they arrived in Florida put their lives in danger, Officer Walter Slosar warned.
The data is even more alarming if one considers that since last October 180,000 Cubans have entered the United States by land and no record takes into account those who have emigrated to Europe and Latin America.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
