• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Five Cuban rafters die at sea in attempt to leave country

Prof. Peabody said:
Obviously way too many ran like cowards instead of staying and fighting or the Castro's would be in the ground right now.
Click to expand...
Lehigh Acres family witnesses rescue of Cuban refugees during cruise
http://www.news-press.com/article/20120610/NEWS0103/120610014

Jun. 10, 2012

bilde

A Lehigh Acres family at the tail end of a seven-day Caribbean cruise witnessed a rescue at sea of five Cuban refugees on a small rubber raft.

Charlie and Erika Bonacolta; their children, Nicholas, 20, Vincent, 16, Anthony 15 and Adriana, 14; and Nicholas’ girlfriend, Taylor Grace, 18, were sailing back to Port Everglades on Saturday after visiting Cozumel, Mexico, on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas when a small raft was spotted bobbing in the ocean.

“We were about 30 miles from Cuba,” Mrs. Bonacolta said, when the captain announced that a raft had been seen. “We slowed down and they sent a lifeboat out to pick them up,” she said.
Click to expand...
Those that are quick to judge should try to put themselves in their situation. These refugees don’t have the freedom and opportunities that we all take for granted. Imagine yourself in on a makeshift raft risking your life so that you and your family can have freedom, rights and opportunities.
 
This is becoming more frequent, as Cubans seek ways to escape the island of Dr. Castro. The Castroit regime for five decades has forced its people to submit to failed policies of disastrous economic and moral consequences.

What happens to the people of Cuba is something that should concern the world community. For the Castro brothers power is everything and they continue to arrest, torture, exile, and murder anyone not willing to submit to their inept five decades old regime.
 
Disney Cruise Ship Picks Up Refugees
Disney Fantasy Rescues Cuban Refugees - Disney Cruise Line

May 28, 2012

(11.15 a.m. EDT) -- A Disney cruise ship picked up four men found adrift on a small raft near Key West, Florida.

Disney Fantasy boarded the men -– who are believed to be Cuban refugees -- while sailing from Florida to Grand Cayman on Sunday 27 May.

The men, who were spotted signalling for help, were brought aboard the ship and provided with medical attention, food and water, according to a statement from Disney.

What will happen to the men once they arrive on Grand Cayman remains unclear. In an e-mail to Cruise Critic, a spokesperson from Disney addressed the future of the men indirectly, saying, "We have notified the U.S. Coast Guard of this rescue and we are working with the proper authorities to coordinate the debarkation of the group ... It would be up to those authorities to determine next steps."

The incident follows a rescue by Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas which picked up 23 Cuban refugees off Cozumel, Mexico, in April.
Click to expand...
The ship actually spotted a second raft on the way back to Florida. It's a miracle that someone spotted them and they were saved by the princess cruises ship that passed a fishing vessel and didn't bring the men on-board
 
dirtpoorchris said:
There are no US embargo boats in the area to pick of some of these escapers and bring them to the US for sanctuary? Oh wait. People aren't noble like that.
Click to expand...
Best thing to do would be to give them a ride back to their superior healthcare system. We're all stocked up here.
 
Last edited:
lunchbox said:
There are no US embargo boats in the area to pick of some of these escapers and bring them to the US for sanctuary? Oh wait. People aren't noble like that.
Click to expand...
dirtpoorchris response: Best thing to do would be to give them a ride back to their superior healthcare system. We're all stocked up here.
Click to expand...
Brothers to the Rescue is a small non-profit corporation, which conducts humanitarian missions of searching for rafters in the Florida Straits. During search and rescue flights, Brothers to the Rescue pilots and spotters have seen Castroit attack helicopters hunting the waves and during a mission even filmed the dramatic images of two rafts being captured, and the ramming of a raft by the Castro brothers military vessels. This film was subsequently requested by the United Nations and appeared on CNN, ABC, CBS, and FOX network news. These rescue operations have resulted in the assistance of more than 4,200 men, women, and children.

On February 24, 1996, two unarmed civilian planes with American flags of Brothers to the Rescue, with four American citizens on board, were shot down in international waters by the Air Force of the Castroit tyrannical military regime.

The United States government condemned very strongly the incident, which in turn prompted the adoption of the Helms-Burton Act. The Act strengthened and continues the embargo against the Castroit regime.

Shoot Down, a documentary film that illustrates the incident, was the winner of the 2007 Sonoma Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. It was theatrically released in 2008 and is among the top-grossing political documentaries of all time.
 
Lehigh Acres family witnesses rescue of Cuban refugees during cruise
Cuba: Lehigh Acres family witnesses rescue of Cuban refugees during cruise

Jun. 10, 2012

bilde

A Lehigh Acres family at the tail end of a seven-day Caribbean cruise witnessed a rescue at sea of five Cuban refugees on a small rubber raft.

Charlie and Erika Bonacolta; their children, Nicholas, 20, Vincent, 16, Anthony 15 and Adriana, 14; and Nicholas’ girlfriend, Taylor Grace, 18, were sailing back to Port Everglades on Saturday after visiting Cozumel, Mexico, on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas when a small raft was spotted bobbing in the ocean.

“We were about 30 miles from Cuba,” Mrs. Bonacolta said, when the captain announced that a raft had been seen. “We slowed down and they sent a lifeboat out to pick them up,” she said.
Click to expand...
Those that are quick to judge should try to put themselves in their situation. These refugees don’t have the freedom and opportunities that we all take for granted. Imagine yourself in on a makeshift raft risking your life so that you and your family can have freedom, rights and opportunities.
 
Sandokan said:
The Castros tyranny speaks of changes on one hand, but acts with strong arm against human rights initiatives on the other. It is astonishing that progressives couldn’t care less if Cubans are deprived of the civil rights they so passionately want for themselves.

We cannot forget the thousands of Cubans executed without due process, imprisoned, perishing trying to escape in make shift rafts, forced into exile, since the reign of terror of the Castro brothers tyrannical monarchy started 53 years ago.
Click to expand...
Jimmy Carter went to Cuba and called for lifting of sanctions and Bush called for harsher sanctions at a campaign fund raiser. It's difficult to feel empathy for your cause when you demogogue those who probably care more than you do about the Cuban plight. You just seem to be exploiting the plight of Cubans to gain political points.
 
Last edited:
People risk their lives to immigrate out of almost all the countries in latin America ... Its a poor country ... as are most of the third world ...
 
It really have to be extremely bad when people leave family and home to venture across the infested shark waters of the Florida Strait in a tiny rubber raft. There are people in the US that won't move to another state to get a better life, let alone another country.
 
People do the samething comming from Mexico, central America, South America and so on ....
 
I am grateful these refugees were rescued before something bad had happened to them. I feel for them because they have tried to come here and realize the “American dream”, leaving everything behind for a better future for their children. It is great to here when they make it ashore. Their determination and the risk they take, is what make them the type of immigrant worthy of the US.
 
My cruise ship intercepts a raft of Cuban refugees [video]
[video]http://jason-cochran.com/video/my-cruise-ship-intercepts-a-raft-of-cuban-refugees-video/[/video]
By Jason Cohcran
June 29, 21012

Yesterday, I was ending a week-long voyage on Royal Caribbean’s mighty Oasis of the Seas (travel writing, yo) with Nomadic Matt, and as our mammoth ship crossed the 90-mile distance between Havana, Cuba, and Key West, Florida, we encountered an inflatable raft packed with 18 refugees. They were in distress.

Something about travel and me places me where news is happening. Just as I did when Virgin Atlantic negligently stranded passengers without food for nearly two days at JFK, I turned to Twitter to report the story as it unfolded. Websites started picking up my coverage; CruiseInd.com generously said “Thank social media for this, and the people who actually know how to use it.”
Click to expand...
Look that the rafters were trying to avoid being handed down to the Coast Guard when they claimed that were headed to Mexico. Unfortunately they were handed down to the Coast Guard, ending up back where they started.

The Cuban people are truly desperate, and attempt anyway to escape from the Castro brothers fiefdom, no matter the consequences.
 
UPDATES
[video]http://jason-cochran.com/video/my-cruise-ship-intercepts-a-raft-of-cuban-refugees-video/[/video]
UPDATE, 2 July: The refugees did not escape. The Coast Guard in Miami told me that “The Coast Guard did rendezvous in the cruise ship’s former location” but “it is an ongoing law enforcement investigation” so it is not able to comment until “they are repatriated in their home country if they are in fact Cuban refugees.”
Click to expand...
Well, at least they are alive.
 
UPDATE, 2 August: The 18 refugees were repatriated to Cuba on 6 July, according to the Coast Guard in Miami. Its public report states:

“Coast Guard Sector Key West, Fla., watchstanders received notification that the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas was on scene with a blue-foam raft with 18 people aboard south of Key West, Fla., June 29, 2012. Sector Key West watchstanders diverted the Coast Guard

Cutter Nantucket whose crew on June 29 safely embarked the 18 migrants and later transferred them to the cutter Ocracokefor repatriation. … Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants are provided with food, water, shelter and basic medical attention. The cutter Ocracoke is a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in St. Petersburg, Fla. The cutterNantucket is a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in Key West.”

The following day, it picked up six more Cubans and sent them home, too. And so it goes.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the update, very nice of you Jason. Very sad they couldn’t make it, but at least they are alive.
 
Coast Guard Returns Cuban Migrants Found off Floridas Coast
Coast Guard Repatriates 13 Cuban Migrants - Hispanically Speaking News

Published August 2, 2010

cuban_raft-180x130.jpg
The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Pea Island interdicted a rustic vessel with 11 Cuban migrants aboard approximately 53 miles south of Marquesas, Florida, last week. Aboard the rustic vessel were nine male and two female migrants. Over the weekend these individuals were returned and repatriated to Cuba.

A good Samaritan notified the Coast Guard stating he was on scene with a Cuban migrant in the water near Duck Key, FL. A second person was located in the water off Long Key, FL. A small boat crew from Coast Guard Station Marathon, FL., was launched and recovered both persons. The second person stated he left Cuba 11 days prior with two other people in a 19-foot foam-type vessel. He later changed his story and said he left Cuba with six others.

A third Cuban migrant was located on Conch Key, FL., and taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection officials. He told officials he was with a group of six others who left Cuba.

The Coast Guard Cutter Sawfish, Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jet crews from Air Station Miami, MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews and HC-130 Hercules aircrews from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, FL., along with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission boat crews conducted searches in the waters near where the migrants were found. Border Patrol vehicular units also conducted multiple searches on land. After an exhaustive, multi-day search covering more than 1,000 square miles, the active search was called off.

Once aboard Coast Guard cutters, all migrants are provided with food, water, shelter and basic medical attention.

barcorustico.jpg

Rustic raft built with polyester and wood without a motor.
Click to expand...
Only 2 of the 8 refugees that were aboard the rustic raft were rescue. From 1959 through 2010, some 50,000 Cubans managed to escape from the island, mostly by sea in small boats and makeshift rafts keep afloat by using inner tubes and disregards tires as floating devises. The estimate number of the victims is based in Dr. Armando Lago research, data from the Oceanographic Institute of the University of Miami and the University of Havana, and reports by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that only one in four “balseros”(rafters) who have attempted to escape has been successful, 25% have been captured and many of them send back, and 50% have died in the attempt. The estimate number of casualties that died at sea attempting to escape is over 100,000.

Dr. Armando Lago received his master and doctorate in economics from Harvard University. He had a distinguished career as university professor, and a specialist in the field of international transportation. Among other things he was co-author with Maria Werlau of the book "The politics of psychiatry in revolutionary Cuba", 1991. His life’s legacy was to help build the Cuba Archive.
 
With so many wealthy Cuban drug dealers in Florida, why have they not taken care of "The Problem" in Cuba? There can be no doubt that they have the resources and the manpower, resources to purchase any sorts of weapons, aircraft and boats that they require. Yet they do nothing to help their own.

They could easily take control of and then free Cuba just as the armed drug cartels control Mexico.

What's the problem?
 
Last edited:
18 Cubans reach U.S. on rickety boat
18 Cubans reach U.S. on rickety boat - Florida - MiamiHerald.com

By Esteban Illades The Miami Herald
Posted August 8,2012

A small boat carrying 18 Cubans reached Riviera Beach about 2 a.m. Wednesday, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

“It’s 16 men and two women, all of them in good health,” said agent Frank Miller, spokesman for the Border Patrol’s West Palm Beach station.

Miller said that among the Cubans there was a man who was about 70 years old. There were no minors among the passengers.

The boat left Municipio de Manatí, an area in eastern Cuba, on Friday. The yellow boat, nearly 21 feet long, was a “very old fishing boat,” Miller said. Its engine came from an old Soviet automobile, and its sail was propped up by a tree branch. Its hull was cracked and the engine had a fuel leak.

The passengers told the Border Patrol that they ran out of fuel during the journey, but a fishing vessel with a Bahamian flag gave them enough fuel to reach South Florida.

During their voyage, the balseros faced bad weather due to the rain spun off from Hurricane Ernesto.

The 18 migrants were in the Border Patrol’s custody while they filled out the necessary paperwork for their release.

During the past fiscal year, 271 Cubans have arrived by boat in the United States.

Z3tV6.St.56.jpeg

A man takes a photo of an old boat which came ashore on Singer Island early Wednesday morning with 18 Cubans aboard. Ropes were attached to the boat by a crew from TowBoatU.S. Palm Beach, who removed it from the beach. Lannis Waters / Palm Beach Post
Click to expand...
In 1994, during President Clinton administration, the U.S. set a quota of 20,000 immigrant visas annually for Cubans. Of this number, 5,000 come from a lottery system. To gain a visa from this special lottery is highly desired by Cubans since those selected are entitled to a Green Card and work assistance in the United States. After winning the lottery, applicants are required to pass an immigration visa interview as part of the screening process. The purpose of the screening process is to ensure that the applicant will not become a burden to the United States government.
 
liblady said:
i'm a lefty and i don't believe cuba is a wonderful place to live. they do have decent healthcare, however.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Doesn't look like you've set foot in a Cuban hospital before.
 
18 Cubans in Homemade Boat Operated By 1950s Engine Came Ashore in Riviera Beach
18 Cubans in Homemade Boat Operated By 1950s Engine Came Ashore in Riviera Beach | NBC 6 South Florida

The boat was equipped with a motor from a 1950s-era Russian car engine

By Brian Hamacher
Wednesday, Aug 8, 2012

080812+cubans+boat+riviera+beach.jpg
Eighteen Cuban migrants came ashore in Riviera Beach early Wednesday nearly five days after leaving the island nation in a homemade boat operated by a 1950s Russian car engine, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.

The migrants, 16 men and two women, landed on Singer Island around 2 a.m. in the 21-foot wooden fishing vessel, U.S. Border Patrol Agent in Charge Frank Miller said.
Click to expand...
Only one in four “balseros” (rafters) who have attempted to escape has been successful, another 25% have been captured and most of them send back, and 50% of them have died in the attempt, according to the U.S. Coast Guard estimates. The estimate number of casualties that died at sea attempting to escape is over 100,000. This is a staggering figure of balseros dying in the attempt of escaping from the paradise island of Dr. Castro
 
Sandokan said:
The mainstream media bias continues to talk about how wonderful is life in Cuba, at the same time that these tragedies are happening. Lefties try to paint the Castros’ regime as a wonderful place to live, except that they have opted for living someplace else. If that is the case, why 200,000 thousands Cubans have risked their lives on makeshift rafts to escape from Dr. Castro island paradise?
Click to expand...
the paradise island of Dr. Castro[
Click to expand...

all complete fabrications. Complete fabrications. You will find as much lefty MSM describing Cuba as a workers paradise as you will find righty MSM calling Somalia a capitalists paradise. Source that the MSM (which includes foxnews as one of the largest MSM in the world) continues to portray life in Cuba as wonderful please
 
Last edited:
furthermore, before someone posts how these 5 illegal immigrants show how the USA is so superior to any other place in the world, as is usually the case in similar discussions, some preemptive truth:


Illegal immigration is estimated to be 60% higher in
Europe, at about 500,000 per annum, than in the US.

http://www.frdb.org/upload/file/paper1_23jun01.pdf
 
Cuban refugees' raft sinks off Mexico's Isla Mujeres
BBC News - Cuban refugees' raft sinks off Mexico's Isla Mujeres

BBC News
12 October 2012

An improvised raft carrying 23 Cuban refugees has sunk as it approached a Mexican island near the popular resort of Cancun.

Two people have died and 11 are missing and presumed dead.

Survivors told Mexican media that their home-made raft sank as it hit the reefs surrounding Isla Mujeres on Friday morning.

The refugees said they headed for Mexico in the hope of joining relatives in the United States.
The accident happened some 150 metres (140 yards) off Isla Mujeres, in an area known for its strong currents, the Mexican Navy said.

Cancun is one of Mexico's best known holiday destinations

Ten Cuban refugees managed to swim to safety.

But they said the others were taken away by the currents or fatally injured as they were pushed towards the rocks by the big waves.

"One of them had a head injury and died on the beach. The other one, a woman, was taken to hospital but also died of her injuries," said a Navy official, Ismael Gonzalez Gil.

There were no children among the 23 Cuban refugees.

The survivors said group's intention was to reach the Mexican coast, which lies some 220km (140 miles) west of Cuba, and eventually cross the border into the United States.
Click to expand...
How come the refugees are escaping from the Socialist system going on the island paradise of Dr. Castro? Could be that under the Castro brothers Socialism misery is equally share? Every one, except the leading class, shares the misery equally.

About 50% of Cuban refugees die while attempting to escape the island, as the rafts they use in last-ditch escape efforts are usually improvised and overcrowded.
 
U.S. repatriates 32 Cubans pulled from sea south of the Keys
U.S. repatriates 32 Cubans pulled from sea south of the Keys - Florida Keys - MiamiHerald.com

By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@miamiherald.com

The United States has intercepted another 32 Cubans at sea trying to reach South Florida in crude boats and on Thursday returned them to the island at Bahia de Cabañas, the Coast Guard announced Friday.

The cruise ship Disney Magic spotted a dozen of the migrants southwest of Key West on Oct. 18 in a “15-foot rustic vessel,” the Coast Guard said.

A cutter, the Decisive, picked them up.

Two days later, a Coast Guard patrol plane out of Miami spotted another 20 Cubans south of Marathon — and dispatched the Cutter Kodiak Island to retrieve them.

The Coast Guard provided no ages or additional information on the Cuban migrants in its disclosure of the repatriation.

But it issued a stern warning that their activities were both illegal and dangerous.

“The Coast Guard and our partner agencies will continue to patrol vigilantly to rescue and repatriate undocumented migrants who take to the sea,” the chief of law enforcement in the Miami area, Coast Guard Capt. Brendan McPherson said in a statement.
Click to expand...
The rafters don’t believe in the migratory reforms of the Castroit tyrannical regime greeted by the mainstream media. They continue to risk their lives to escape from that sinking ship.
 
At the same time that Cubans continues to risk their lived by throwing themselves into the sea on rickety rafts in order to escape the Castros tyranny, Lefties talk about how wonderful is life under the Castros’ regime, but they have opted for living someplace else. If Cuba is a wonderful place to live, why 200,000 thousands Cubans have risked their lives on makeshift rafts to escape from Dr. Castro island paradise?
 
Number of Cubans Defecting To the United States Growing
More Cubans Arriving in the United States - ABC News

By EMILY DERUY and CRISTINA COSTANTINI (@xtinatini)
Nov. 26, 2012

The number of Cuban defectors coming to the United States is on the rise.

Nearly 1,300 Cuban immigrants were detained by the U.S. Coast Guard in the 2012 fiscal year. In contrast, only 422 Cubans were detained in 2010. Officials say that more Cubans are also crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders and arriving by air from countries like Spain and Ecuador, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

The increase in Cuban defectors coincides with the introduction of a new law on the island which will ease punishments for those who left without authorization and now want to return to visit the island.
Click to expand...
The Coast Guard detained 1,275 Cubans on boats intercepted before they reached Florida in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30. That was the highest number since 2008.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom