ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Cubans sail a modified 1959 Buick across the Florida Straits on Tuesday. Two passengers tried to make the trip last summer in a Chevy pickup.
The '59 Buick converted into a boat and headed to Florida Keys with 11 Cuban migrants onboard has been sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard and those onboard will be taken back to Cuba, according to an exile activist in Key West.
The U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday morning refused to comment on the fate of the car, citing a policy not to comment on an ``ongoing mission.''
But Arturo Cobo, who ran the Cuban rafter house in Key West in the 1990s, said he tried to intervene on behalf of the Cubans and was told by government sources that it was too late.
''My sources tell me that like the truck seven months ago, this car has also been sunk by the Coast Guard and the people onboard will be repatriated back to the island,'' said Cobo.
A Coast Guard source confirmed the situation had ended but would not say what was done with the people or their floating car.
Under U.S. immigration policy, Cubans who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those who are stopped interdicted at sea are usually sent back.
When another group made a similar attempt in July to cross the Straits in a 1951 Chevy flatbed truck, their floating truck was sunk by the Coast Guard and the people were repatriated.
Relatives said there were six adults and five children in the Buick, including Marciel Basanta López and Luis Gras Rodríguez -- two of the people who fled Cuba in the truck in July -- and their wives and children. They said the group left Cuba around 8 p.m. Monday.
They were in a 1959 tailfinned Buick that appeared to be on some sort of floating platform, its seafoam green nose fitted into a boat hull. The Buick is said to have sailed with 10 miles of Marathon early Wednesday.
Cobo had dubbed the Cubans floating on the vehicle ''carronautas'' or car astronauts. He is planning to open a museum of memorabilia of items Cubans have used to escape from island and hoped the green car used by the group could be a show piece.
Bush wants to pardon illegal Mexicans allowing them to work here, but a mother with American born children is shipped out. It doesn't make much sense to me. Granted she stayed here illegally, but some concession should be made for her American born children. They will allow them to stay here, but not with their mother. Now she can't see them for 10 years unless they go there. Sad.
posted on February 4, 2004 03:20:12 PM new
I've got my violin out...playing a sad tune just for your story. not. They come here illegally they need to be deported. period. That's what encourages more to come...have their children here...get to stay here..get to get welfare for the family because of the American born child. I'd hope to see more of this....then they might reconsider before coming here illegally. She can take her children with her to her native country....that solves the bleeding heart problem.
posted on February 4, 2004 04:32:34 PM new
I don't understand how sinking boats of any sort in international waters is anything but piracy no matter which direction they are going.
If the Cubans sank a Coast Guard cutter out in the ocean between Cuba and Florida there would be a huge outcry. If they come inside the three mile limit I can understand boarding them.
They need a flat bed with a 40 mm Bofors on the bed. That would get some respect out there.
posted on February 4, 2004 04:40:13 PM newShe can take her children with her to her native country....that solves the bleeding heart problem.
Yup, and when her children reach majority, they can come back here and claim their birthright. I'm sure President Bush would applaud that.
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posted on February 4, 2004 04:45:17 PM new
This Post was for Nothing more than the Floating 1959 Buick, hence the title Nothing Beats American Made. The article pushes no agenda only states facts of this one incedent.
posted on February 4, 2004 04:58:22 PM new
Like we stay on topic here? I can't tell by the picture, wonder if that's a Roadmaster? It it was, the Coast Guard should be arrested for the sinking of an American Classic... I did notice that they matched up the paint on the boat part and the Buick...very stylish.
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posted on February 4, 2004 05:03:05 PM new
Ingenuity ought to count for something.They should let them in. Besides it is an American car and they denied it entrance to its home country..and then sunk it. Geesh.
posted on February 4, 2004 05:03:58 PM new
With the size V8 in that baby I'm surprised they couldn't make the run in one night and slip right in under the cover of darkness.
I'd glue steel wool all over the sides to absorb the radar and they'd never paint a return off it.
posted on February 4, 2004 05:19:10 PM new
Found It. This is the one of the pickup.
"We arrived at the coast in the same truck and assembled everything in six hours," said another of the would-be immigrants, Eduardo Perez Gras. "If they had let us get to Key West, we would have been able to drive it right onto the sand."
posted on February 5, 2004 04:07:12 AM new
Well if they can't mount a big enough gun to hold off pirates maybe they can make a submarine.
A bus should do nicely with room for ballast tanks.
posted on February 5, 2004 12:56:46 PM new
LOL, Gravid!
Cuban-Americans Ask That 11 Aboard Car-Boat Be Allowed Entry
By Adrian Sainz Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 5, 2004
MIAMI (AP) - Relatives of 11 Cubans found at sea in a vintage car converted into a boat awaited word on their fate Thursday, as Cuban-American leaders urged the U.S. government not to send the group back to their homeland.
While the U.S. Coast Guard won't comment on ongoing interdictions, Cuban exile activists say the group found Tuesday on a seagoing 1950s-era Buick were still being held at sea until a decision was made on whether to send them home. The group, discovered 10 miles from Marathon in the Florida Keys, faces a likely return to Cuba under U.S. immigration policy.
After the Cubans were found, the Coast Guard sank the vessel, said Alex Cruz, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The Republican congresswoman, a Cuban exile, requested on Wednesday that the vessel be saved as a piece of history.
The Coast Guard, which used machine gun fire to sink another vehicle-powered barge that tried to reach U.S. shores in July, refused Thursday to confirm the status of the tail-finned Buick.
Pilar Rodriguez, mother of Luis Grass Rodriguez, who helped transform the car into a boat, told The Associated Press she hoped the U.S. government will allow him to enter the country. She said her son has a U.S.-issued visa to enter legally but hasn't been allowed to leave Cuba by conventional means.
"All we can do is wait and hope," said Rodriguez, who arrived in Miami from Cuba last month on a tourist visa and plans to return in May. "He doesn't like the political system there."
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said his group had appealed to the U.S. State Department "in hopes they would give some humanitarian consideration" to the group, which includes five children.
The attempt was "a product of incredible ingenuity that is embarrassing to the regime," Garcia said Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, has also asked the State Department to allow Grass, his wife and son to enter the United States.
A State Department official declined comment Thursday.
Grass and another man on the boat, Marciel Basanta Lopez, were identified by as having already failed in a previous effort to reach the United States in a similar vessel.
Basanta and Grass were sent back to Cuba in July after they failed to reach Florida in a 1951 Chevy pickup converted into a pontoon boat. They were joined by 10 other people on that trip.
The Chevy pickup they used in July was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft pushed it along at about 8 mph. After the Coast Guard intercepted them about 40 miles off Key West, the pickup was sunk to keep it from becoming a hazard to other vessels.
The transformed vehicles are known in Cuba and Miami as "bing-bangs" Cubans typically built them inside homes under the cover of night to avoid detection, and their name is derived from the sound coming from inside the homes where the work is being done. Those who build and pilot the crafts are referred to as "truckonauts."
"It reflects the desire of people to abandon a homeland where they have no future and no hope," said Yanisset Rivero, executive director of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a Miami-based exile group.
Under U.S. immigration policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores generally are allowed to stay while those caught at sea are usually returned. Immigration officials interview Cubans intercepted at sea to determine if they have a credible fear of persecution at home, but most are still returned.
Cuban-Americans, including several congressional members, have criticized the so-called "wet foot, dry foot" policy and asked the White House revise it. President Bush said in October that the United States would focus on promoting "the many routes to safe and legal entry" to America.
On Thursday, the apparent repatriation of the group drew feelings of compassion and resignation from some Miami residents.
Margarita Pinto, an eyeglass store owner, called the situation "painful."
"They put so much effort into it," said Pinto, of Colombia. "It's completely unfair."
Trucker Jorge Lopez, 64, came from Cuba in 1974 and said he sympathizes with Grass and his companions.
"It seems to me they deserve to stay in this country, but as they say in English, 'It's the law,'" Lopez said in Spanish.
posted on February 5, 2004 02:32:13 PM new
Whichever one of them that does have a visa, will more than likely stay.
One thing that was left open to interpretation by the article ,is the revision of the wetfoot, dry foot decree.
We want all the immigration stopped. No More! It's time to put the house in order. The Opposition is visible and growing. The time is now to strengthen it by shutting off the pressure release valve.
posted on February 5, 2004 06:38:16 PM new
For whom are you speaking when using the word "We", Max?
Cuban Musicians Nominated for Grammy Awards Denied US Visas
By Andrea Rodriguez Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 5, 2004
HAVANA (AP) - Cuban musicians nominated for this weekend's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles have been denied U.S. visas needed to attend the ceremony, a top Culture Ministry official said Thursday.
"Something as noble as music is being converted into a policy against Cuba," Vice Minister of Culture Abel Acosta told a news conference.
Surrounded by some of the Cuban musicians nominated for awards, Acosta showed journalists the letters from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, denying their visa requests.
The letters cited Section 212f of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Law, which states that the American president can deny U.S. entry to foreigners when their coming to the country is deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States."
posted on February 5, 2004 09:38:54 PM new
Hey Pat, Musicians? Mucha Caca Nothing but political agents. They say its only music, Who knows maybe when ours are not considered contraband.
"We" means the bulk of the community.
Here's a quote from; Gustavo Arcos Bergnes from the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in Havana:
"The Cubans in exile can play a great role in the future of Cuba," he says, "but the road to democracy will start here and be resolved here. In the post-Castro world, the Cubans in exile will play a great role but, of course, in conjunction with the Cubans here."
Sorry but i could not find anything written on the Net yet. You'll just have to take my word for it.< smile is to be placed here, but since Me forgets; picture it.>
posted on February 6, 2004 02:54:38 PM new
Here's a smile for you, Max:
I don't think I buy the notion that musicians coming here to be recognized by the Grammy Awards are spies. They're coming to be honored for their music, then they're going home.
Judge Protects 3 Cubans Found at Sea on Buick From Return
By Catherine Wilson Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 6, 2004
MIAMI (AP) - A Cuban family of three found with eight others at sea on a floating 1950s-era Buick cannot be sent home at least until Monday, a federal judge ruled.
But U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno warned Friday that the family faces a "high hurdle" that may be as tall as Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains to legally enter the United States.
A federal prosecutor told the judge that the Coast Guard cutter carrying the 11 Cubans will be in a position to drop them off in Cuba on Sunday or Tuesday.
Four of those intercepted in the converted car Wednesday about 10 miles off the Florida Keys gained fame for trying to make the same mechanically challenging trip in a vintage Chevrolet pickup truck last July.
Attorneys for the intercepted Cubans obtained a temporary restraining order protecting only the family of Luis Grass Rodriguez. He, his wife and young son also made the earlier aborted crossing.
Now, come on, Max, this family of three was on both the pick-up truck and the Buick; can't you find it in that big heart of yours to let 'em stay? An "A-for-effort" kind of thing?
posted on February 6, 2004 03:35:41 PM new
Don't be fooled 12 will tell you all that drive and effort to invent a means of escape is so they can just come here and sit on welfare and suck off the public tit. It's all a put on act.
posted on February 6, 2004 05:22:24 PM new
Pat its not them in particular that i meant whether they have visas or not, which the congressional act allows regardless of having visas.
It is the whole Clinton wet foot , dry foot decree. It tells them Hey you can still try for the Prize as many times as you want but you have to try to get past us first. so they do try.
It is inhumane, not only do they risk their lives one time , if they get caught they will keep on doing it until they touch U.S. Soil. We are tired of seeing the list of dead and missing grow.
On the political front we would like a revisement of the cuban adjustment act.
We would want the third OPTION taken out of the "game". 1. Submit 2. Fight-it 3. Flee-it.
Times are not the same as in the 60's and 70's the bulk of the recent arrivals Do not know another life ,as, they were born under that system. Therefore if they do not like it, it is time to try to do something about it like the others did before.
The musicians are not spies and more than likely they arent communist(opportunist). They do have to give credit to the ROB-olution and all the other commie RAH-RAHS.
Check out the ARTURO SANDOVAL story to get a better idea of the system:
DM) If all of the information you had was what the Cuban government gave you, how did you figure out that there was a different story going on?
AS) I traveled a lot as a musician while I was there.
DM) They let you travel? I thought he was very limiting on people traveling.
AS) Well, we went all over Europe and Japan. We even came to America a few times. Unfortunately, when you travel, you have to travel by yourself. If you have family and kids, forget about it. I couldn't have escaped before because I wanted to escape with my family.
DM) How did you escape with them?
AS) I waited and prepared and try to make a plan until they made the mistake of letting my wife and children join me while I toured Europe. It was my opportunity.
DM) Why did they risk that? I thought that was almost unheard of to let a family travel outside of Cuba.
AS) They had two choices. If they said, "No", I stayed there or I could make a big noise and get out of there somewhere. That was probably what they thought about and decided to give me this privilege of traveling with my family. Also, I was trying for years to give them the confidence for years to make them think I'll come back given the opportunity. You know, everybody over there has a couple of faces. In some cases they have four. When you are with your close friends and family, you let them know what you really think. When you are in public with somebody that you don't know you let them think something else. Everybody does that.
posted on February 6, 2004 05:31:31 PM new
I wonder if anybody has ever tried it in a ballon? You'd have to know a lot about the weather. And if you were big enough to see on radar you'd really be a sitting duck to intercept.
A submarine sounds better and better. Not a real one but just a boat with a sealed deck that is down flush or inches below the water with a drum or pit for the helmsman to stand in with a canopy or a plastic splash guard and a pump at his feet. A piece of plastic pipe sticking up would suck air in high enough to not draw water and not show on radar. A little ballast would keep it low in the water and very stable. You'd have to be right on top of it to see it if you painted it the right color and went slow enough in the day not to raise a big wake. You could experiment with paint until it looked right held just under the water. Green- blue.
[ edited by gravid on Feb 6, 2004 05:39 PM ]
[ edited by gravid on Feb 6, 2004 05:41 PM ]
posted on February 6, 2004 06:26:53 PM new
Max, you pup, I'm with you for the most part on immigration. I want people to do it the old-fashioned way, as both my Grandfathers did: come on over, agree to abide by the laws of this country, learn to speak english, work, and apply for citizenship. Frankly, I don't understand why illegal immigration is so pervasive, given that the tests for citizenship are relatively easy and anyone can take night school english classes for a nominal fee.
Gravid, I'm beginning to feel like I ought to PayPal a weekly check to you for services -- laughs -- rendered. I'm now going to be up all night searching the Internet for stories of people who attempted entrance into the U.S. via balloon or dirigible. Drat you, sir!
posted on February 6, 2004 06:43:23 PM new
You know one time the Coasties were chasing us on Lake St Clair and this guy heads right for the edge of this island where there was a big sand bar and yells to go below and crank up the centerboard like crazy when he yells.
So we're about rock throwing distance from this big dark blob in the moonless night that has to be the island and he yells and I crank it up hard as I can. The wind blows us over almost flat on the water with the rail right in and there is this long Screeeeeeeee of sand scraping the hull and we slow down and then go right over the bar and he yells to crank it back down and the sails grab a nice 30 knot wind again and she moves right smart. Come back up and look over the port rail and the Coastie follows right across and when he hits the bar it is so hard his running light go up like he's on an elevator. The Diesels burble cuts right off.
How they ever got that sucker off with no tide to lift it I don't know. Shame they didn't need a light house there or something.
I suppose that sort of thing is hard to do in a '59 Buick.
posted on February 6, 2004 07:43:39 PM new
here you go Gravid these are the public buses on the island. They are called Camellos (Camels) on the street.
Weee aaaall live in the camel submarine the camel submarine.
posted on February 6, 2004 07:47:29 PM new
here Pat some more info on musicians;
Subtle signs have deep meaning in Cuba
HAVANA, July 28 - The performance in a public place of just a few bars from a recording by recently deceased Cuban songstress Celia Cruz, including her trademark "Azúcar," visibly registered with a crowd of about 2,000 in Guanabo beach, east of Havana, last Thursday, with meanings that would be opaque to outsiders.
Ms. Cruz' music has been banned in Cuba for more than 40 years; as she became world renowned as the queen of salsa, she was quietly forgotten in her homeland by government edict. In 1960, already a star in Cuba, she left on a tour from which she chose not to return. Castro's government interpreted the act as treason, and banned her and her music from the island. Three years later, when she solicited permission to visit her dying mother, it was denied.
After she died July 16, she received tumultuous funerals in New York and Miami, and two, mostly disparaging lines on page 6 of the 8-page Communist party daily, Granma.
July 24, about 2,000 Guanabo residents participated in festivities celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the local parrish. The spectators milled in front of the movie house in the evening to enjoy the entertainment when a local comic, Roberto Herrera, snuck in a snippet of one of Ms. Cruz' recordings in the background music for his act.
What happened next would remind a casual observer of the wave at a sports stadium: a stir went through the crowd, faces lit up in knowing smiles, a hush, a murmur went around the crowd.
In Cuba, even a few bars of a song can be an act of political significance.
