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NEWS
Posted on Sat, Dec. 13, 2003
FLORIDA STRAITS
Cuban dissidents feared lost at sea
Five days after a raft of
dissidents fled Cuba, there's been no trace of them, sparking concern on
both sides of the Florida Straits.
BY TERE FIGUERAS
tfigueras@herald.com
A group of seven Cuban dissidents who fled the island in a makeshift
raft Monday have not been heard from since and are feared lost at sea,
according to the Cuban Liberty Council.
''They left in a homemade raft,'' said Luis Zuñiga, president of the
Miami-based Cuban Liberty Council. ``The seas are high, so you can only
imagine.''
Among those missing: Bárbaro Antonio Vela Crego, the president of the
January 6 Civic Movement, or Movimiento Civico 6 de Enero, who faced 20
years in prison for his opposition to the Castro regime, said Zuñiga.
He and six other dissidents slipped away from the city of Alamar, east
of Havana Bay. Their vessel was powered only by pieces of cloth patched
together to form a sail and had no engine, Vela's wife told the Cuban
Liberty Council.
The Coast Guard had no information on the group and said no migrants had
been repatriated to Cuba this week, said Petty Officer Carleen Drummond,
an agency spokeswoman.
Vela was frequently harassed for his activities, including work with
Oscar Elias Biscet, a nonviolent opposition members sentenced in April
to 25 years in prison, Zuñiga said.
''He was told they were coming to arrest him, and that he would spend 20
years in jail,'' Zuñiga said. ``The day after he left, the police came
to his house looking for him.''
In addition to his wife, the dissident left behind a 20-year-old
daughter ''and other family that depended on him for support. That is a
quandary many in the opposition face,'' Zuñiga said.
Other movement members fleeing with Vela: Juan Tamayo Muñoz, Claudio
García Porcades, Julio Armando López Calma and Juan Carlos Nuñez Guerra.
Two other dissidents, Michael González González and Eugenio Lavastida
Alonso, were also on the raft, according to the Cuban Liberty Council.
Vela signed a 2001 ''Appeal from Havana'' on behalf of his group, the
National Council of Civil Resistance. His signature was alongside that
of Oswaldo Payá, leader of the Varela Project for human rights and
democracy in Cuba.
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