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Five Cuban rafters die at sea in attempt to leave country

Cuban migrants climb down from lighthouse near Key West
Cuba News | MiamiHerald.com & Miami Herald

By Emily Cochrane and David Goodhue
ecochrane@MiamiHerald.com
May 20, 2016

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A group of Cuban migrants atop American Shoal Lighthouse off Sugarloaf Key in standoff with Coast Guard on Friday. The migrants later came down and were being processed by immigration authorities. Photos courtesy WSVN

The 19 Cuban migrants straddled atop the American Shoal lighthouse off Sugarloaf Key have come down and are being processed by immigration officials, Coast Guard officials said Friday afternoon.

The migrants climbed down from the 109-foot structure around 5:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, the migrants had swum to the lighthouse after the Coast Guard approached their makeshift boat in the waters off Sugarloaf.
Click link above for full article.
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The light house is considered US soil. The law is in their side. They will be staying.
 
Will Cubans who climbed lighthouse get to stay in U.S.?
Will Cubans who climbed lighthouse get to stay in U.S.? - CNN.com

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
June 15, 2016

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Cuban migrants scale lighthouse off Florida Keys

(CNN)The TV news helicopter footage showed scenes from a standoff.
A boatload of Cuban migrants scaled a 136-year-old lighthouse off the Florida Keys. The U.S. Coast Guard convinced them to come down.

Maria Elena Lopez played the video over and over, filled with relief -- and questions. She spotted her son's dark blue T-shirt. She watched him brush his hand across his face.

Is he OK? When was the last time he ate? When would she have a chance to see him again? "Finally," she thought to herself, "I will have him here with me."

That was more than three weeks ago. And the mother and son are still hundreds of miles apart. She's at home in Jacksonville, Florida. Her son, Alexander Vergara Lopez, and the other 23 Cubans who climbed the American Shoal Lighthouse last month are now aboard a Coast Guard cutter, waiting for a federal judge to decide their fate.

The legal battle centers on a key question: Does the lighthouse count as "dry land"?

Making their case

The judge's ruling will determine whether the migrants can stay in the United States or whether authorities must send them back to Cuba.

The lighthouse the migrants climbed is about 6.5 miles south of Sugarloaf Key, some 15 miles east of Key West in the Florida island chain.
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Unfortunately I was wrong, after 39 days in the lighthouse a federal judge ruled that the wet foot, dry foot policy does not extend to the lighthouse, which is located 6.5 nautical miles off Sugarloaf Key.
 
Sandokan said:
The Cuban escaping from the “worker paradise” is like a never ending movie. People do not flee from freedom and prosperity. The desperation of the Cuban people keep increasing, as they look for any means to escape from the hellish place of the island of Dr. Castro, regardless of the consequences.
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The US $600 per month they can get in US welfare benefits spends pretty well in Cuba. They can just leave their EBT cards with relatives in Miami and Western Union their monthly check anywhere on the island. What a deal!
 
SDET said:
The US $600 per month they can get in US welfare benefits spends pretty well in Cuba. They can just leave their EBT cards with relatives in Miami and Western Union their monthly check anywhere on the island. What a deal!
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Many of the Cubans trying to escape from paradise’s island have drowned, others have been found dead in containers ships, in the wheel well of airplanes, etc. Those risk takers that have manage to survived, are the ones we should be welcoming instead of sending them back.
 
Coast Guard repatriates 28 Cuban migrants
Coast Guard repatriates 28 Cuban migrants | APMA

June 16, 2016

Editors note: Click on image for high-resolution

A small boat crew from the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless approaches a rustic vessel with Cuban migrants onboard south of Marathon, Fla., on June 13, 2016.

MIAMI - The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans repatriated 28 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, Thursday.

These repatriations are a result of two separate migrant interdictions at sea within the last week in the south Florida Straits. In each instance, the Coast Guard helped secure the U.S. border and prevented these perilous sea voyages from ending in tragedy.

“Migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States by boat often travel aboard dangerously overloaded and ill-equipped vessels," said Cmdr. Timothy Cronin, deputy chief of enforcement for the Coast Guard 7th District. "People aboard these vessels are putting their lives at extreme risk. The Coast Guard with our partner agencies will continue to patrol vigilantly to rescue and repatriate undocumented migrants who take to the sea."

Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention.

Since Oct. 1, at least 4,514 Cubans have attempted to illegally migrate to the U.S. via the maritime environment compared to 4,473 in fiscal year 2015. These statistics represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and Atlantic.

For more information on how to legally immigrate to the U.S., call U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at 1-800-375-5283 or visit the USCIS website at Homepage | USCIS.

The Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans is a 154-foot fast response cutter homeported out of Key West, Florida.

These repatriations did not include the group of Cuban migrants interdicted at the American Shoal Light on May 20, 2016.
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It is very frustrating that due to the U.S.-Cuba arrangement they are send back to the island. It takes so much desperation and courage to escape in makeshift rafts and near the end of the road to be send back to hell hole of the Castroit tyrannical regime.
 
40 Cubans arrive Monday night to Florida Keys
40 Cubans arrive Monday night to Florida Keys | Miami Herald

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"I have never seen so many at once," Battalion Chief Francisco Perez said. "They were very happy to see us. They said they had been on the ocean for two days." A boat dropped them off on the ocean side of Lower Sugarloaf Key, about 20 miles from Key West, at about 6:15 p.m. Monday and left. Monroe County Battalion Chief Francisco Perez

By David Goodhue
dgoodhue@keysreporter.com
July 18, 2016

As many as 40 Cuban migrants arrived on Sugarloaf Key Monday night. The major landing combined with three other migrant arrivals since Sunday means that in less than two days, at least 60 refugees from Cuba arrived in the Keys.

U.S. Border Patrol officials did not have many details about the Sugarloaf Key landing Monday night -- only that a large group came ashore. Dispatch conversations among first responders heard on scanners indicate the group includes at least one four-year-old child.
Click link above for full article.
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Since President Obama rapprochement with the Castroit regime the condition in the island has deteriorated. Most Cubans did not see Obama when he was in Cuba or saw him on TV. Many Cubans worry that the policy of wet-foot, dry-foot could be ended soon and that is the main reason they are fleeing in great numbers.
 
Sandokan said:
Since President Obama rapprochement with the Castroit regime the condition in the island has deteriorated. Most Cubans did not see Obama when he was in Cuba or saw him on TV. Many Cubans worry that the policy of wet-foot, dry-foot could be ended soon and that is the main reason they are fleeing in great numbers.
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Yes, Obama actually celebrated the Cuban suffering and praised Castro for what he was doing.
 
Coast Guard ends search for 20 missing Cuban migrants
Coast Guard ends search for 20 missing Cuban migrants - UPI.com

By Ed Adamczyk
Sept. 28, 2016


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The U.S. Coast Guard ended its search Tuesday for a boat that capsized on its way to the United States from Cuba. Three migrants aboard the ship were found alive on an island in the Florida Keys. They reported that 23 were aboard their boat. The Coast Guard deployed a Sentinel-class cutter, seen here, and other ships and aircraft, in the search. File photo by Anthony L. Soto/DoD/UPI

MIAMI, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for 20 Cuban migrants reported missing after their boat capsized last week.

Three people, found on Big Pine Key in the Florida Keys, reported they were among 23 people aboard a boat that left Cuba on Sept. 20 and overturned the following day while traveling to the United States. The bodies of three of the remaining 20 people aboard were located in Islamorada, in the upper Florida Keys, and another body was found on Big Munson Island. Monroe County Sheriff's deputies recovered another body from Ramrod Key, in the lower Florida Keys, and an investigation is underway to determine if the person was part of the group.

The Coast Guard search, which covered over 9,306 square miles, employed aircraft and several ships. It was suspended late Tuesday.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission aided the rescue effort.
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It takes a lot of desperation and courage to escape in makeshift rafts. People do not flee from freedom and prosperity. This escape from the “worker paradise” has ended tragically. Twenty Cuban escaping from the Castroit gulag have lost their live.
 
Cuban rafters continue to die in the strait of Florida. Is another sign of the fail approach of the Obama administration in its dealing with the Castroit regime. The desperation of the Cuban people keep increasing, as they look for any means to escape from the “island paradise” regardless of the consequences.
 
Sandokan said:
Cuban rafters continue to die in the strait of Florida. Is another sign of the fail approach of the Obama administration in its dealing with the Castroit regime. The desperation of the Cuban people keep increasing, as they look for any means to escape from the “island paradise” regardless of the consequences.
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Just came back. Spent 3 days in Havana and 11 in Varadero. Had some real interesting conversations with locals. It does seem to me, the general consensus is for more money but I didn't get the feeling of absolute desperation, like I have in other places I've visited.
 
gunner said:
Just came back. Spent 3 days in Havana and 11 in Varadero. Had some real interesting conversations with locals. It does seem to me, the general consensus is for more money but I didn't get the feeling of absolute desperation, like I have in other places I've visited.
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Have you succumbed to the siren son of the Castroit regime?
 
Sandokan said:
Have you succumbed to the siren son of the Castroit regime?
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It was just a glimpse of life. I've succumbed to the conversations of ordinary Cubans :)
 
gunner said:
It was just a glimpse of life. I've succumbed to the conversations of ordinary Cubans :)
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Cuban rafters continue to die in the strait of Florida. Is another sign of the fail approach of the Obama administration in its dealing with the Castroit regime. The desperation of the Cuban people keep increasing, as they look for any means to escape from the “island paradise” regardless of the consequences.
 
Coast Guard repatriates 90 Cuban migrants
Coast Guard repatriates 90 Cuban migrants | Coast Guard News

November 17th, 2016
MIAMI — The Coast Guard repatriated 90 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, since Tuesday.

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A Coast Guard Station Key West boat crew approaches a rustic vessel Nov. 10, 2016, with 18 Cuban migrants onboard approximately one mile southeast of Marquesas, Florida. (Coast Guard photo)

The Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans repatriated 62 Cuban migrants Tuesday and 28 Cuban migrants Wednesday.
These repatriations are a result of eight separate at-sea migrant interdictions in the South Florida Straits within the last week. In each instance, the Coast Guard helped secure the U.S. border and prevented these sea voyages from ending in tragedy.
Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention.

“Migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States by boat often travel aboard dangerously overloaded and ill-equipped vessels,” said Cmdr. Willie Carmichael, deputy chief of enforcement for the Coast Guard 7th District. “People aboard these vessels are putting their lives at extreme risk. Immigration policies have not changed, the Coast Guard’s missions have not changed. Migrants interdicted at sea will be returned to their country of origin in accordance with immigration laws.”

The Coast Guard has observed an increase in illegal maritime migration attempts to the Southeastern U.S. from Cuba. The Coast Guard 7th District estimates 687 Cubans have attempted to illegally migrate via the sea since Oct. 1. In fiscal year 2016, 7,411 Cubans attempted to illegally migrate via the sea compared to 4,473 in fiscal year 2015. These numbers represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and Atlantic.

The Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans is a 154-foot fast response cutter homeported out of Key West.
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Since the 1994 migration agreements with then President Bill Clinton, the US consulate in Havana has awarded at least 20,000 visas a year, which gives us a figure of 440,000 people at a minimum. And only in the last two years, almost 100,000 people have gone to the United States via underground routes.
 
Raul Castro’s reforms are so good and so welcome by the Cuban people that they continue escaping from the island of Dr. Castro on rickety rafts. It is like a never ending movie.
 
Coast Guard Apprehends Most Cuban Migrants in Decade
Coast Guard Apprehends Most Cuban Migrants in Decade | Military.com

us-coast-guard-cuban-migrants-21-jan-2016-ts600.jpeg

In this image taken on Jan. 4, 2016, released by the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard personnel left, try to assist a group of Cuban migrants on a makeshift vessel in the Florida Straits.

Military.com | Nov 29, 2016 | by Hope Hodge Seck

In the wake of the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba and political uncertainty about the future of immigration policy, the Coast Guard has seen a dramatic increase in interdictions of Cubans trying to enter the States illegally from the sea.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said the number of Cuban interdictions in fiscal 2016 was the highest it has been in a decade.

The 7,361 Cubans caught attempting to illegally migrate from the sea represents a 60 percent increase over fiscal 2015, he said.
Click link above for full article.
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According to the mainstream media, Cuba is great place to live. They said that people there have great education and healthcare systems. If that is the case, why are they leaving in such great numbers? Progressives that like the Castroit regime so much, should leave for Cuba and live there. Free education and healthcare, and a ration food book. They would love it.
 
Coast Guard Apprehends Most Cuban Migrants in Decade
Coast Guard Apprehends Most Cuban Migrants in Decade | Military.com

us-coast-guard-cuban-migrants-21-jan-2016.jpeg

In this image taken on Jan. 4, 2016, released by the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard personnel left, try to assist a group of Cuban migrants on a makeshift vessel in the Florida Straits.

Military.com | Nov 29, 2016 | by Hope Hodge Seck

In the wake of the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba and political uncertainty about the future of immigration policy, the Coast Guard has seen a dramatic increase in interdictions of Cubans trying to enter the States illegally from the sea.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said the number of Cuban interdictions in fiscal 2016 was the highest it has been in a decade.

The 7,361 Cubans caught attempting to illegally migrate from the sea represents a 60 percent increase over fiscal 2015, he said.
Click link above for full article.
Click to expand...
According to the mainstream media, Cuba is great place to live. They said that people there have great education and healthcare systems. If that is the case, why are they leaving in such great numbers? Progressives that like the Castroit regime so much, should leave for Cuba and live there. Free education and healthcare, and a ration food book. They would love it.
 
Coast Guard repatriates 29 migrants to Cuba
Coast Guard repatriates 29 migrants to Cuba | Coast Guard News

December 30, 2016

MIAMI — The Coast Guard repatriated 29 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, since Saturday.

Cutter-Isaac-Mayo.jpg

The Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo crew repatriated five Cuban migrants Monday and another 24 migrants Friday.

These repatriations are a result of three separate at-sea migrant interdictions in the South Florida Straits. In each instance, the Coast Guard helped secure the U.S. border and prevented these sea voyages from ending in tragedy.

“It is not uncommon to see a surge in Cuban migrant flow during the winter months when there are no major storms,” said Cmdr. Willie Carmichael, deputy chief of enforcement for the Seventh Coast Guard District. “We continue to strongly discourage attempts to illegally enter the country by taking to the sea. These trips are extremely dangerous. Coast Guard missions and operations in the Southeast remain unchanged and the Coast Guard and our partner agencies remain ready to stop those who take the illegal, ill advised and unsafe journey across the Florida Straits.”

Since Dec. 1, at least 669 Cubans have attempted to migrate to the U.S. via the maritime environment compared to 619 Cubans in December, 2015. These statistics represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and Atlantic.

Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention.

The Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo is a 154-foot fast response cutter homeported in Key West.
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Sensing the termination of the ‘wet food, dry foot’ policy by the Obama administration, Cuban rafters are fleeing in great number attempting to reach U.S. soil through the strait of Florida. There numbers had dramatically increasing during 2016. Their desperation and urgency to escape from the Castroit tyrannical regime outwait the dangers of sailing in poorly constructed and overcrowded rafts at the cost of losing their lives in the attempt, as so many of them had.
 
Cuban refugee boat washes up on County Sligo beach
Cuban refugee boat washes up on County Sligo beach - BBC News

By Julian Fowler BBC News NI
7 February 2017

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The boat washed up on a beach in County Sligo

On a sandy beach on the west coast of Ireland lies the remains of a strange looking boat.

The improvised vessel washed up on Cliffoney beach in County Sligo.

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A car engine was connected to a broken propeller

It is made from a metal frame partly covered in yellow tarpaulin, with expanded foam and water bottles used for buoyancy.
A closer inspection beneath the overturned hull, now covered in barnacles, reveals a car engine connected to a broken propeller.
The boat caught the interest of Gordon Fallis, who saw it as he was walking his dogs along the beach.
Click link above for full article.
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The distance between Cuba and Ireland is about 4,200 miles. But a makeshift boat that Cubans rafters use to escape from the island washed up in a beach on the west coast of Ireland. It is possible that ocean currents took it off course and washed up it on the beach. It was possible to identify the origin of the boat due to the fact of the Cuban label on the water bottles inside it and the yellow tarpaulin, the same type used on the Cubans makeshift rafts.

Like Fowler pointed out in the article, “While the fate of those on board may never be known, the discovery has helped to bring the story of the Cuban refugees to people thousands of miles away.”

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When Gordon Fallis checked the water bottles it was clear where they came from
 
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?
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Look, am not an admirer of Castro. Worked with many Cuban refugees back in the day. But people leaving the island are essentially no different than Haitians fleeing poverty or Central Americans fleeing gang violence, except that Cubans are by law guaranteed resettlement in the US, or at least they used to be. Guarantee the same benefits to, say, Dominicans and watch that country empty.
 
Sandokan said:
The distance between Cuba and Ireland is about 4,200 miles. But a makeshift boat that Cubans rafters use to escape from the island washed up in a beach on the west coast of Ireland. It is possible that ocean currents took it off course and washed up it on the beach. It was possible to identify the origin of the boat due to the fact of the Cuban label on the water bottles inside it and the yellow tarpaulin, the same type used on the Cubans makeshift rafts.

Like Fowler pointed out in the article, “While the fate of those on board may never be known, the discovery has helped to bring the story of the Cuban refugees to people thousands of miles away.”

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When Gordon Fallis checked the water bottles it was clear where they came from
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lMany refugees have crossed the border into Manitoba after having trudged miles through freezing winter conditions, several loosing fingers to frostbite, to escape the US.
What's your point?
 
Sandokan said:
Like Fowler pointed out in the article, “While the fate of those on board may never be known, the discovery has helped to bring the story of the Cuban refugees to people thousands of miles away.”
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Why didn't Fowler point out in the article the war crimes, the terrorism, the stealing of the Cuban people's wealth by the uSA, the grand folks who sought to give liberty to Filipinos, Cubans, ... from Spain and ended up raping and pillaging just like Spain?

Then, after the Cuban people took back their country, the USA has been practicing a genocidal embargo for 58 years. For the last quarter century, the world, in the UNGA, except for, guess who, the US and Israel, have been condemning the USA for its terrorism against Cuba.

The world's leading terrorist group/"nation", the USA.
 
Americans love to milk events like this. It makes for grand propaganda - always gotta feed the mill.

But where is the concern for the millions the US has slaughtered, the planned US genocide against the Iraqi people in the 1990s, the planned use of the Afghan people to "give the USSR its own Vietnam".

"The high level of civilian casualties that this would certainly entail was considered but set aside. According to one senior official, "The question here was whether it was morally acceptable that, in order to keep the Soviets off balance, which was the reason for the operation, it was permissible to use other lives for our geopolitical interests." Carter's CIA director Stansfield Turner answered the question: "I decided I could live with that." According to Representative Charles Wilson, a Texas Democrat, ..."

Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden, and the Taliban
 
camlok said:
Americans love to milk events like this. It makes for grand propaganda - always gotta feed the mill.

But where is the concern for the millions the US has slaughtered, the planned US genocide against the Iraqi people in the 1990s, the planned use of the Afghan people to "give the USSR its own Vietnam".

"The high level of civilian casualties that this would certainly entail was considered but set aside. According to one senior official, "The question here was whether it was morally acceptable that, in order to keep the Soviets off balance, which was the reason for the operation, it was permissible to use other lives for our geopolitical interests." Carter's CIA director Stansfield Turner answered the question: "I decided I could live with that." According to Representative Charles Wilson, a Texas Democrat, ..."

Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden, and the Taliban
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What "genocide" are you babbling about in Iraq?

The vast majority of deaths was IRAQI on IRAQI violence.... And continue to this day.
 
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