In their impoverished Havana neighbourhood, tearful mothers implored US authorities to allow the emigres to stay in the United States, saying they would be jailed if returned to Communist-run Cuba. Thirteen Cubans, including six children, sailed across the Florida Straits in a 1949 Mercury with a built-on prow and a taxi sign on the roof. They were intercepted about 32km off Key West on the southern tip of Florida yesterday morning, Miami television station NBC 6 reported.
The group set off on Monday night local time from a beach east of Havana in the converted car owned by Rafael Diaz, who was making his third attempt to leave Cuba in the makeshift amphibious craft. Miami television images showed them aboard a US Coast Guard cutter. A Coast Guard spokesman said he could not provide details on the incident until the fate of the migrants was resolved. "He's my only son. He is all I have got," said Diaz's mother Josefina Rey, 79. "But at least in the United States he can remake his life. Here they will not leave him in peace."
"I implore the US government that they be allowed to stay. If they are returned they will be refugees for ever, there will be reprisals," said Efigenia Bello, whose daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, aged 3 and 4, were on the vessel. She said her daughter Yerani was a doctor and Cuba would not allow her to emigrate legally to the United States.
Generally, Cubans intercepted on the 140km crossing to Florida are sent back to the island, while those who make it to US soil are allowed to stay. Others are taken to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay and later allowed to go to a third country from where they can make it to the United States. According to Coast Guard statistics, some 1406 Cubans have been intercepted illegally crossing the Florida Straits since October. Most are ferried over in smugglers' vessels.