None were saved but three were rescued? I'm kind of confused on that.

There is nothing that we can do for the 31 except honor their memory and add their names to the monument that shall some day be built to commemorate all the victims of Castro's insatiable bloodlust. What should concern us at this moment, however, is the fate of the 3 survivors. I presume that they have been brought to land for medical treatment. That would be the humane thing to do, but in dealing with Cuban refugees the U.S. Coast Guard rarely does the humane thing these days.

From what I read on the herald online 14 made it when the boat capsized.
They were holding on to the boat floating upside down but they begin to slip away.
Only 3 were rescued.

Very sad...

I thought the three were already back in Cuba. Forty six years. Yes, Mora, God damn fidel castro.

If, as you say, Kathleen, the 3 have already been returned to Castro's tender mercies--dehydrated and dying, with their skin blackened and falling in chuncks and their feet and legs nearly eaten away--returned to die of opportunistic infections in hospitals ill-equipped and ill-disposed to save their lives--then the U.S. Coast Guard, and its commander-in-chief, George Bush, has committed yet another atrocity and besmirched once again what before 1995 had been a legacy of which all Americans could be proud.

I remember many years ago reading a newspaper article that described the feelings of U.S Coast Guardsmen when they rescued Cuban refugees on the high seas: the joy, the exhilaration that they experienced when they returned life to the lifeless and restored hope to the hopeless.

Well, things have changed. Now Cubans are not helpless human beings to be rescued, but animals to be tracked, captured and returned to captivity.

Jay, the 3 survivors said that they were part of a group of 34 so it seems that none of the remaining 31 were ever found, just the empty boat.

MAT, this time it was not the US Coast Guard, but rather a passing ship that saved the 3 survivors and took them to Cuba which was the nearest spot. The Coast Guard only found the empty boat in the subsequent search. A boat meant for 10 people was overloaded with 34 people; such is the desperation!

Mora, thank you for making us reflect that each life lost is a tragedy that touches many family members and friends; dreams cut short, etc.

If the U.S. Coast Guard had found them, it would have returned them to Cuba, too. Or do you doubt it? Before the "wet foot/dry foot" policy was instituted, the cruiser would have contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and they would have airlifted the survivors for medical treatment in the U.S. Now it is useless to contact the U.S. Coast Guard since it is no longer involved in rescuing Cubans but returning them to their tormentor, and the cruiser can do that just as well as the U.S. Coast Guard.

The US Goverment has to change this policy and grant refuge to all Cubans. To abandon them to kagasstro's wills is as criminal as to leave them to the hunger of sharks, since they are likely to risk their live again to escape the terrestial branch of hell set up by kagasstro just 90 miles south of Key West. The wet feet - dry feet policy is not only criminal, but also amoral, and I really don't understand why the present goverment has commited to honor it as a Clintonista legacy. Shame.

from el nuevo herald

El gobierno cubano ha mantenido absoluto hermetismo sobre lo ocurrido y ni siquiera ha proporcionado los nombres de los sobrevivientes.

Extraoficialmente trascendió el nombre de una sobreviviente: Surelis López Villalón, de 24 años.

La joven sobrevivió aferrada a la lancha, con un chaleco salvavidas, y consumió su propia orina y un paquete de pastillas anticonceptivas para paliar la sed y el hambre, según su propio relato a las autoridades cubanas.

El Servicio Guardacostas conoció que al producirse el naufragio, 14 personas quedaron aferradas a la embarcación mientras veían que los 20 pasajeros restantes eran arrastrados por la corriente. Los tres rescatados tenían chalecos salvavidas y pudieron permanecer flotando hasta ser auxiliados por el navío mercante.

That's what happens when you don't have Brothers to the Rescue, and when the "immigration activists" are more concern in making the border porous instead of saving people who flee a dictatorship that is a sworn enemy of this country. Damn them, damn klinton and kagasstro!
Maybe Cuban Americans have to get organized and patrol the straits to save their fellow countrymen from the the seas, from kagastro, and from the liberal media propaganda!

CB: You are right, damn Castro and Clinton. Both Castro and Clinton are going to rot in hell for what they did to Cuban refugees. My concern now, however, is to prevent President George Bush from rotting in hell alongside them for continuing their policies even though he knows that they are wrong.

If the wet foot / dry foot policy is the same thing as the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1996, it is a law, rather than an executive order, and will have to be changed by both houses of Congress. The President alone would not be able to do it.

Didn't Larry Klayman run on a platorm that this law is unconstitutional? Maybe someone needs to get a case into the court system.

Seems to me that if the territorial waters stretch out 200 miles, then if you are within that limit, you are inside the US.

Clinton betrayed us like nobody else not once but 3 times during the period of his presidency .
1 .Guantanamo base
2 Hermanos al rescate.
3.Elian Gonzales

I feel for ALL of those that have lost their lives trying to escape Castro’s regimen, and admire ALL of those that have risked everything to escape Castro’s tyranny and have reached freedom. During their attempts whether there are successful or not, we categorize these brave people as DESPERATE citizens that are PERSUCTED by the Cuban government to such an extent that they must risk ALL to acquire freedom. THEN PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY DO MOST OF THE PEOPLE GO BACK TO CUBA AS SOON AS THEY CAN, USUALLY A YEAR AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN IN THIS COUNTRY. Many of the people in the business of smuggling CUBANS from the island in DEADLY AND DANGEROUS conditions as the conditions that played a part in this tragedy of having 34 people in a boat that was maybe for 8 to 10 people are CUBANS that recently arrived in this country. Most of the CUBANS paying and enriching these pirates and smugglers are CUBAN that recently arrived in this country. EXPLAIN WHY WE MUST CHANGE THE IMMIGRATION POLICIES WHEN MOST OF THE PEOPLE COMING NOW FROM CUBA WILL TELL YOU THEY ARE LEAVING CUBA BECAUSE OF ECONOMIC REASONS AND NOT POLITICAL. There are millions of people wanting to immigrate to this country from all over the world because of ECONOMICAL reasons and they ALL must go thru a process that takes years if not a lifetime to be able to immigrate LEGALLY and receive LEGAL status in this COUNTRY. We Cubans are PRIVILEDGE and are immediately granted LEGAL status in this country based on the premise that we are leaving CUBA because we are being PERSECUTED by the Cuban government; as long as we continue to RETURN to CUBA for WHATEVER reason we are jeopardizing this privilege. If ALL OF CUBA is to be liberated, not just our immediate family and friends. WE CUBAN MUST DO ALL WE CAN TO ENSURE THIS WILL HAPPEN. The immigration status of all CUBANS traveling back to Cuba should be revoked and their ability to renter the USA and obtain legal status should be based on ECONOMICAL and not POLITICAL status, let those who visited CUBA reenter this country based on ECONOMIC reasons and wait the required time to acquire their entry permit.

if only one comes for political reasons, that's enough for us to defend all of them, SA. I would not honor your post with a longer answer.

For Matt.

The policy changed when Clinton was president. Therefore, I believe your anger towards Bush is misguided. You should be thanking Clinton...

ileana, Bush has been president long enough to change the policy. All he has to do is give the word, so why hasn't he?

sa: The entire economy of Cuba is politicized. Anything economics reason for leaving Cuba is by its very nature political. castro has politicized every single aspect of the entire island. Every single aspect.

good question kathleen.
Why????
anybody knows the answer?

Because I believe it is a law, rather than an executive order, so it needs to be changed by Congress. Now, why hasn't he sent such a bill to Congress, that's a pertinent question.

So write to your Representatives and Senators!!

Scott, you are misinformed. The "dry foot/wet foot" policy is NOT a U.S.law which requires Congressional approval to be amended. The Cuban Adjustment Act (1965), as interpreted for 30 years by every American president before Clinton, accorded automatic parolee status (i.e. asylum) to all Cuban refugees regardless of whether they were rescued on the high seas or washed on our shores. Clinton's "reinterpretation" of that Law, which went against all legal precedent and usage, excluded Cubans who did not actually set foot on land from the right to asylum which ALL Cuban refugees had been granted under the provisions of the Cuban Adjustment Act.

All that President Bush has to do to end this travesty of the law is to say that henceforth we will apply the Cuban Adjustment Act as it was intended to be applied and as it was applied for 30 years, and to hell with Clinton and his peculiar "reinterpretation." One word only from Bush's mouth would save thousands of Cubans. But for 5 years he has not dared to say it. He is, however, in favor of a general amnesty for illegal Mexican immigrants. One would think that it was the Mexican-American vote that got him elected in the first place, right? Or perhaps he thinks that Mexicans suffer more terribly in Mexico than Cubans suffer in Cuba.

tocororo: The reason that President Bush has not ended the "dry foot/wet foot" policy in 5 years in office is because he's afraid of another Mariel-type mass exodus that would derail brother Jeb's chances of succeeding him in the presidency. The Bush brothers are very close, and what's a few thousand Cuban lives when the fate of the Bush dynasty is at stake?

GOOD THINKING MAT

By the same token, with a few thousand angry Cuban American voters heading to the poll, their chances are automatically at stake.

To: CB. Do you know how much sleep I will loose because you are not honoring my post? Take a guess?
To: A.M. MORA & LEON: I understand there are many reasons for leaving CUBA and at the same time there is only one reason for leaving CUBA, THE REASON IS CASTRO and the people that support him and make Cuba AN INFERNO. What I don't understand is how after going thru the hardships of leaving such a place, you would wnat to go back to vacation, to sell products, to do business, to have a good time, to show off all the material things you have obtained in the USA.

SA, I don't give a flying hot pepper if you sleep or not. Have a nice life. And some sleep, if your conscience allows you.

and with that I close, because I promised Val time ago not to be polemic in his blog.

come cb get crazy and star shooting away ..lol
I like your style dude.

CB: A very good point, as usual. Unfortunately, Cuban-Americans do not appear to be disposed to use their political capital to help their dying brothers because they are also afraid of another Mariel-type mass exodus. They don't want to have to deal again with the national xenophobia that was whipped-up against all Cubans by the U.S. media 25 years ago. In other words, their good name is more important to many Cuban-Americans than are the lives of their brothers.

The problem with Cubans is that we have always given carte blanche to the politicians we admire. It didn't work in Cuba and it isn't going to work here. Unless we can learn to champion ideas rather than men we will always be subject to political betrayal.

but I do undesrtand lo que dice sa
but one thing has nothing to do with the other sa.
There is a few bad apples in the bunch but not all of them.

por unos garbanzos no se puede echar a perder toda la olla

CB: SLEEPING AWAY, MY LIFE IS GREAT AND CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR. BY THE WAY WERE D0 YOU FIND FLYING HOT PEPPERS?
TOCORORO: UNFORTUNATELY IT IS NOT A FEW BAD APPLES BUT MANY, MANY APPLES. ALL OF US WANT CHANGE IN CUBA. ALL CUBANS IN THE USA AND IN CUBA NEED TO REALIZE THAT CHANGE IN CUBA WILL ONLY COME WHEN WE DO ALL WE CAN TO BRING THE CHANGE.

Flying hot peppers: I don't find them, I throw them at people!!!!

otra cosa que yo no entiendo .the other day a agent de la seguridad del estado escape from cuba.
he was seized at the sea .never touch dry ground.
but he was allowed to go to guantanamo base because he was a ex seguridad del estado .
desde 1983 estaba sirviendo a fidel como chivaton y agente secreto.y ahora es que viene a arrepentierse?.
perdonenme pero es eso pinga de caballo.
sabe dios a cuantos infelices ese cabron metio en la carcel, o a cuantos hostigo.
mi punto de vista es que a el si le dan oportunidad para que darse pero si es un infeliz o un don nadie lo zumban de cabeza para la habana.
o sea un cumnunista arrepentio que se le acabo la papita suave vale mas que un simple cubano buscando libertad

tocororo: Yes, it is quite remarkable that the U.S. is willing to extend asylum to Castro's henchmen while turning away his victims. But, of course, ordinary Cubans can only offer us their love of freedom and drive to succeed, while Castro's goons can offer us so such more: they can tell us how many times a day the maximum leader defecates; whether he watches American television; how many wives he has, and all manner of useful information and rumour. This is by no means a historical anomaly for the United States. Didn't it offer a hardy welcome to all the Nazi rocket scientists at the end of World War II while forcing anti-Stalinist Russians to return to the Soviet Union and certain death? Ask not what you can do for foreigners, but what foreigners can do for you.

da pena ...shame