Cubans Make Desperate Bid For Freedom Near Miami

By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - In front of a crowd of spectators and live television cameras on a Miami beach, U.S. Coast Guard crews plucked four Cuban refugees from the sea Tuesday as they made a desperate bid to swim from their rowboat to the sanctuary of U.S. shores.

Two others succeeded and were arrested by police despite remonstrations from the crowd.

The dramatic dash for freedom in the United States played out at Surfside, where Coast Guard crews intercepted the Cubans as they rowed for shore in a 12-foot wooden boat.

Cubans frequently flee the Communist-ruled island in small boats or makeshift rafts and attempt the 100-mile (160 km) Caribbean crossing to Florida. Those who are halted by U.S. authorities at sea usually are returned to Cuba while those who make it to shore are in most cases allowed to stay.

Coast Guard crews spotted the Cubans trying to ``illegally'' enter the United States and tried to interdict them at sea, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeff Murphy said.

``They were not citizens and came in from Cuba. They did not go through INS (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service),'' he said. ``This is a homemade vessel attempting to come in through illegal means.''

The migrants began swinging oars at the Coast Guard vessels, Murphy said.

``The Coast Guard used minimum use of force. In this case it was a fire hose,'' he said.

Television video showed Coast Guard and other maritime authorities trying to surround the small boat and the Cubans paddling frantically to get away. At one point the Cubans pushed the other boats away with their hands.

Several of the Cubans leapt into the water, swimming strongly for shore only a few dozen yards away.

Two of the migrants, clad only in swimming trunks, reached shore. One waded through the waves with arms upraised as spectators cheered and the other was wrestled to the ground by police and handcuffed as the crowd jeered the officers.

``They should not have harassed them when they finally touched land,'' one beachgoer said.

Protests formed quickly. Demonstrators on the beach chanted ''Libertad,'' while a small group of protesters waved Cuban flags at the Miami Beach Coast Guard station.

Cuban-American Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart condemned the migrants' treatment, saying in a statement that south Florida was ``outraged, appalled and aghast at the brutal treatment'' of the migrants.

``Cuban refugees who were just yards from the U.S. shoreline were hosed with high-pressure water hoses while swimming in the water and attacked with pepper spray,'' he said. ``There is no room in this great nation for a policy of such savage and brutal treatment of refugees whose only crime is the pursuit of freedom.''

Murphy said the Coast Guard was investigating the incident and could not confirm the use of pepper spray, although he said some U.S. Coast Guard crews carried it.

``Boarding officers do have'' pepper spray, he said. ``As to whether it was used I don't know.''

According to customary treatment, the two who reached shore would be held at an immigration detention center for a short time and released to relatives while the four captured by the Coast Guard would be questioned aboard a ship at sea and ultimately returned to Cuba.

Seven other migrants were interdicted by the Coast Guard off Fort Lauderdale Tuesday.

According to Coast Guard figures, 224 Cuban migrants had been intercepted in June, bringing the total to 826 so far this year. In 1998, 1,047 were interdicted.