Sun-Sentinel. The Associated Press. Web-posted: 9:44 a.m. Feb. 28, 2000
MIAMI -- Three Cuban men who survived eight or nine days aboard a raft said that a disabled motor -- and an aborted attempt to return to Cuba -- may have caused the deaths of two others aboard.
Victor Manuel Bermudez Pabon and Jorge Travieso Lopez became delirious in the days before they succumbed, dying just hours before their 6 1/2-foot raft was found Friday about 14 miles off Miami, their friends said. The Coast Guard was called to the site by a boater.
"They didn't make it because they just gave up in their minds," said Jorge Nicolas Gonzalez, Bermudez's brother-in-law.
Gonzalez, about 33; Oscar Lazaro Garcia, 27; and Jeinier Alvarez, 21, were recovering Sunday at Miami Beach's South Shore Hospital and Medical Center, suffering from severe burns and blistering.
A fourth survivor, Ernesto Molina Ramos, 29, is in intensive care at the same hospital, suffering from circulatory problems caused by drinking saltwater and a possibly gangrenous leg. All four will be allowed to apply for legal residency, U.S. officials said.
Gonzalez said he could not stand to remain in Cuba, where he drove trucks containing meat and poultry -- food that he, his wife and 3-year-old son could not obtain. Shortly before he fled Cuba, he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison because half a container of chicken was missing when
he returned to work following a short leave.
"I just want to work," Gonzalez said. In the United States "I know that if you work hard, you can your family."
When the group left Cuba on Feb. 17 or 18 -- they are no longer sure which day they embarked -- they found their wood-and-rubber raft was too buoyant and bounced in the water.
So they punctured some of the inner tubes attached to the raft's bottom. But they also accidentally punctured their water container and their food fell out, too, they said.
Thinking that they could make the trip in about five or six hours -- at its closest point, Cuba is about 90 miles from the Florida Keys -- they still set out.
But just two miles from Cuba, their motor quit, so they threw it into the ocean and began rowing toward the Keys.
About half way across the Florida Straits, Molina -- the man with circulatory problems -- demanded to return to Cuba. So the group started to return to Cuba -- they aren't sure for how long they reversed their course -- until Molina said he could no longer row. So they again reversed course
and headed back toward Florida.
During the last days of the voyage, Travieso and Bermudez had trouble remaining calm, their friends said.
While the others were sleeping, Travieso jumped into the water and began yelling "Hector, Hector." The survivors don't know who he was referring to. They pulled him back on board.
Soon, Travieso and Bermudez died. Before their rescue, all had given up hope. They rowed during the day and slept at night.
"We would just let the current take us wherever it wanted to and thinking that we were probably going to die," Garcia said.
Copyright 1999, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc. |