CUBA/AT SEA: POLICE SEARCH PROPERTY OF A GROUP OF CUBAN RAFTERS WHO HAD ATTEMPTED TO REACH THE U.S. IN A PICKUP TRUCK CONVERTED INTO A RAFT

Record ID: 646079

  • Title: CUBA/AT SEA: POLICE SEARCH PROPERTY OF A GROUP OF CUBAN RAFTERS WHO HAD ATTEMPTED TO REACH THE U.S. IN A PICKUP TRUCK CONVERTED INTO A RAFT
  • Date: 16th August 2003
  • Summary: (U7) HAVANA, CUBA (AUGUST 16, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKSHOP WHERE THE TRUCK RAFT WAS BUILT WITH RAFTERS REPAIRING A FORD TRUCK FROM THE 1950S (3 SHOTS) SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRUCK RAFTER LUIS GRASS SAYING: "Yes, it is necessary to repair this [the truck he was working on] because we don't have another one now - so we do it. This is all that is left." /PAN TO ENGINE SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GRASS SAYING: "I am desperate to leave here and I hope and pray that God is looking favourably on us - but if not, we will make a helicopter with this [referring to the truck] and if the police come, then we'll fight with them so they can see that we're not afraid." SV: GROUP FIXING THE TRUCK AND TALKING SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) TRUCK RAFTER MARCIAL BASANTA SAYING: "They took me over there as if I were a criminal and I said to him - because the street was full of people from one end to the other, there were almost 500 people there - I said to him that I am not a criminal - that my trying to leave did not mean that I was a criminal." PAN: GROUP NEAR THE TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 31st August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA AND AT SEA
  • City:
  • Country: Cuba At Sea
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC3P9HBQ1USS3E1XHBTBJL5CQF
  • Story Text: Police searched the property of a group of Cuban rafters who had attempted to reach the U.S. in a pickup truck converted into a raft.
    Police on Saturday (August 16) searched the repair shop of a group of Cubans who entered the public spotlight in July when they converted a 1951 Chevy truck into a raft and tried to float to the United States.
    The U.S. government immediately sent the rafters back to Cuba, where they have so far avoided punishment.
    During Saturday's search, no one was arrested, but police confiscated the metal frame of an old tractor they believed could be used for another floating vehicle.
    Still, the rafters remained defiant.
    "I am desperate to leave here and I hope and pray that God is looking favourably on us - but if not, we will make a helicopter with this [referring to the truck] and if the police come, then we'll fight with them so they can see that we're not afraid," said one of the truck rafters Luis Grass.
    Another rafter, Marcial Basanta, declared that he was not a criminal despite how he was treated by the police.
    "They took me over there as if I were a criminal and I said to him - because the street was full of people from one end to the other, there were almost 500 people there - I said to him that I am not a criminal - that my trying to leave did not mean that I was a criminal," he stated.
    The group of nine men, two women and a three-year-old boy got halfway across the Florida Straits in the bright-green truck floating on twelve oil drums with a propeller attached to the transmission before they were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard.
    Back in Cuba, the group went to the U.S. Interest Section to apply for political asylum and are awaiting a response.
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