Just before dawn – Checkpoint Charlie Berlin, 1962. Several East Berliners make it over the wall to freedom, and hurry to enter the American sector. A group of passersby spot them and wave them forward, offering assistance. Nearby, U.S. military guards notice the disturbance, rush to the scene, and quickly assess the situation. Making a quick decision, they push the refugees toward the wall, telling them to go back. The refugees plead with the guards, asking them to just let them go. One refugee breaks down, it is his fifth attempt to escape from communism. The guards ignore their pleas, and force the refugees back over the wall into communist East Berlin where an unknown fate awaits them.
Pure fiction of course; here’s a modern version of the story from the Miami Herald:
The scene played out as it has so many times before: Cubans on a flimsy inflatable raft begged Carnival Cruise Line officials not to interrupt their journey to ”freedom” while passengers tossed them water bottles and shot video.
Adlin Sukhwani, of Kendall, was on the last leg of a seven-day cruise, about 45 miles from Key West, when she spotted the small raft on Saturday and her husband started videotaping the 10 men — an effort to get their faces splashed in the news media and help their families identify them.
Dozens of tourists leaned on the verandas aboard Carnival’s Valor to spot the men traveling on what appeared to be an inflatable raft of blue rubber, ropes and wood, she said. ”Americans, Cubans, Colombians, we were all trying to help them, and throw them bottles of water,” Sukhwani said.
The tourists and the men shouted back and forth in Spanish. When one of the tourists asked what they needed, the men responded: “Please tell them to keep on going. Don’t stop!”
Under the U.S. wet foot/dry foot policy, Cubans intercepted at sea are generally sent back to the communist island, while those who make it to American soil are usually allowed to stay.
”It was a very emotional moment for all of us,” said Sukhwani, of Cuban and Indian descent. “We felt powerless.”
Following U.S. Coast Guard procedure, the cruise ship intercepted the raft about 45 miles off Key West, said a Carnival spokesman.
Before the cruise ship crew took the men aboard, ”one of the Cuban men said with despair he had risked his life and this was his fifth time being returned,” Sukhwani said.
The men said they were from El Cotorro, a town on the outskirts of Havana.
Sukhwani’s husband, Dhiraj Sukhwani, filmed the moments before the crew took the men aboard, hoping close-ups of the men’s faces will help family in South Florida identify the men, who appeared to be in their 20s and 30s.
Carnival later turned the men over to the U.S. Coast Guard. The tourists arrived in Miami on Sunday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are questioning the men and processing their return to Cuba, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
When did Carnival Cruises become castro’s gatekeeper?
Update: (Val) Dont get stuck on stupid obsession here, folks. “Maritime law” notwithstanding, the balseros requested they be left alone in order to possibly reach the freedom of US shores. They risked their lives for it and now that they have been “saved” by Carnival Cruise Lines, they’ll be repatriated back to their island prison. Focus on the reality of their situation: their oppressed lives, the absurd wet foot/dry foot policy, their probable encarceration at being repatriated, the absolute dismal and dire circumstances they must have lived under to risk it all to change. That’s the real focus here, and not what some petty racist leftist says about Cuban-Americans on some whiny little blog that just cant wait to move to Colorado. Do something constructive with your time instead.
Ziva, what a great comparison for others to understand. If your “fictional” account would have been true, the news media would have been all over it denouncing the cruelty of the soldiers in returning the escapees back over the wall. I would not have been able to stand watching this happening if I had been on board the cruise ship. About 20 years ago, my family and I were in Key West for the weekend and a group of rafters came ashore behind the hotel we were staying at. My daughter, who was six then, was the first to spot their raft and she alerted her dad. A bunch of us rushed to help them and brought them food and water once on shore. To this day she remembers that day and how happy the rafters were at having arrived. She understood the price people pay for freedom that morning. I just hope that the people on board that cruise ship understood the desperation that these rafters had to find freedom, risking their lives, only to have their dreams shattered one more time.
Ziva,
To answer your question, “when did Carnival Cruises become Castro’s gatekeeper?” Wasn’t there talk about Carnival Cruises establishing cruises to Cuba? I’m sure that they are trying to get their browning points and wouldn’t want to anger the Castro Monarchy in any way. That’s the way it always is. A few years back the Italian firm that was running Cuba’s telephone lines was reportedly spying on the conversations of the Cuban people and reporting counter-revolutionary chatter, and we all know that the media doesn’t report the real stories in Cuba because they don’t want to be kicked out of Cuba and lose the opportunity to report the “big story” when the beast finally kicks the bucket! There is so much greed and complicity with Cuba that it boggles the mind. Makes one lose faith in humanity that money and interest always takes precedence.
This is an evil thing the US government does. When people do bad things – bad things come back to those people.
Somebody’s got to break these guys out of the CG detention center – that’s the only solution. Sorry to be so blunt but . . .
Much as I hate what happens to those Cubans caught at sea, WFDF is likely what is keeping the Straits of Florida open for US law enforcement and US intelligence, especially as fidel fades away.
If WFDF were not in place, castro would have spent the past ten years screaming, threatening, and running to his buds in the UN if a dolphin farted within a yard of Cuban waters.
This would have lessened the ability of US intelligence to get accurate information about castro’s health, and ensured that the drug lords have an even greater incentive to keep Cuba hostile after fidel goes (the farting dolphins that happen to be drug smugglers don’t seem to raise the same objections).
Comment removed by Ziva, because anyone who chooses to use the monikor “che” is not welcome on my post. It’s an insult to this blog, and its readers.
Me quede botada con el whiny little blog that just can’t wait to move to Colorado…what did you mean, Val?
Like if we didn’t have enough petty racist leftists in colorful Colorado and now do I have to deal with another one? I just hope he/she does not come anywhere near my quiet midwest campito.
Cubanita,
You didn’t know that rick the dick, the south florida blogger, doesn’t want to live in south florida? He wants to breathe the clean air, grow his beard and write his anti-cuban, anti-conservative, anti-gun manifesto in the rocky mountains.
Cubanita,
You didn’t know that rick the dick, the south florida blogger, doesn’t want to live in south florida? He wants to breathe the clean air, grow his beard and write his anti-cuban, anti-conservative, anti-gun manifesto in the rocky mountains.
Cubanita,
You didn’t know that rick the dick, the south florida blogger, doesn’t want to live in south florida? He wants to breathe the clean air, grow his beard and write his anti-cuban, anti-conservative, anti-gun manifesto in the rocky mountains.
Cubanita,
You didn’t know that rick the dick, the south florida blogger, doesn’t want to live in south florida? He wants to breathe the clean air, grow his beard and write his anti-cuban, anti-conservative, anti-gun manifesto in the rocky mountains.
Stuck on Bigotry
Stuck on Bigotry
Stuck on Bigotry
Stuck on Bigotry
Oh my!, another idiot to join Tancredolandia? Y pensar que los panaderos se levantan a las 5 de la manana… Those are the cons of the Rockies’s clean air: it attracks all kind of bugs.
If it was really just about the name, then why did you let me post for two weeks on other topics? And sorry to tell you, but you can still see the name there. Maybe it’s because whenever you are bested, you turn to the power you hold and remove or censor. Sounds like a certain bearded dictator I know…
Not on my posts you haven’t, go back and check. You said, “I thought you weren’t going to argue with them anymore. Easier said
then done, huh?
You’re all about law abiding until you find it inconvenient with your
propaganda, eh?”
Who did I say I wasn’t going to argue with anymore, and as far as the long. The wet foot dry foot policy is immoral, enacted by an immoral president. Never have I said anyone should blindly follow mans laws. And your moniker, is insulting here and by that lack of respect you don’t deserve any consideration or dialog. If you comment here again, I will remove it. Would you go to a Jewish themed blog comment using the name heilhitler and expect to be welcome?
threatening comment removed by Ziva
comment removed by Ziva
I like how you specified that it was threatening. You’re damn right buddy. Folks like you need a good ass kicking from time to time.
You just proved my point asshole. The real che also beat up women. I’d say your moniker fits.
Che_Day, Ziva is a woman and she’s a Jew. So you are talking out of your fucking ass. Go away and don’t darken our door.
comment removed by Ziva.
comment removed by Ziva