July 11, 1999
Web posted at: 6:32 p.m. EDT (2232 GMT)

A Coast Guard cutter rescues Cuban refugees on Saturday
MESSAGE BOARD:
U.S. / Cuba Relations

MIAMI (CNN) -- Eleven Cubans whose bid for freedom in the United States failed when their boat collided with a Coast Guard cutter now await their fate Sunday at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The body of a twelfth Cuban -- a woman who apparently died in the mishap -- was also being returned to the base and turned over to next of kin. Her body was recovered Saturday morning.

Their 25-foot wooden motorboat sank late Friday night when it collided with the cutter Point Glass near Hillsboro Beach, north of Fort Lauderdale. Only moments before, the cutter had attempted to stop the boat from approaching the Florida shore, Coast Guard petty officer Scott Carr told CNN.

As the cutter's crew threw out a rope to jam the boat's propeller, the boat slowed to a stop, and one of the Cubans used a machete to cut the line. Once freed, the boat sped up, crossed cutter's bow and the two vessels collided, Carr said.

INS to decide on asylum

Carr said the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service will decide whether or not the 11 Cubans will be granted asylum in the United States.

Under U.S. policy, those who reach U.S. shores are allowed to seek asylum, but those intercepted at sea are returned to their homeland or another country.

"Typically, if they find the Cubans have a fear of going back to Cuba, then the State Department could work with them about relocation to another country, perhaps central American," he said.

The INS is also investigating whether smugglers may have been involved, he said.

Carr said the Coast Guard is investigating the incident to make sure its policy was properly followed.

"We have to evaluate what we did to make sure procedure was followed properly," he said.

Cubans trying to evade the Coast Guard on June 29 were sprayed with pepper spray

The crash came amid anger among Cuban exiles in Miami following a June 29 incident in which the Coast Guard turned pepper spray and fire hoses on six Cubans trying to come ashore.

Live television broadcasts of the incident enraged the city's Cuban community, which protested the Coast Guard's actions by blocking traffic on two major roadways.

So far this year the Coast Guard has stopped more than 960 Cubans trying to make it to Florida. Last year, they found more than 1,000 Cubans trying to reach Florida.

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