By Mike Clary
Havana Bureau

San Francisco de Paula · In a small house on the main street in this dusty farm town, Elizabeth Hernández wrapped her arms around her 2 1/2-year-old son, Jhon Maikol, on Wednesday as the child's father recalled the January night when they and 12 others huddled for hours on Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys.

"We had sacrificed so much, but we felt we had made it," said Junior Blanco, 26.

But they had not.

Because the bridge was no longer linked to land, the Coast Guard ruled that the Cubans had not reached U.S. soil and took them back to Cuba.

"It's just so unjust," said Hernández, 22, a small woman with long dark hair. "To think, we were there."

Now, a federal district court judge, Federico Moreno, has ruled that the Coast Guard's decision to repatriate the Cubans was "unreasonable," and has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to make its "best efforts" to bring them back to the United States.

Government lawyers have 30 days to appeal the ruling. Miami attorney Kendall Coffey, who argued the Cubans' case, said he expected to learn within a few days whether the Bush administration will comply or appeal to a higher court.

Even if the government complies, Coffey conceded that Tuesday's court order did not ensure that the Cubans will be returned through official channels.

"All a judge can do is tell the United States to use its best efforts," he said.

In Havana, Drew Blakeney, a spokesman for the U.S. Interests Section, said he could not comment on the case of the 15 Cubans and had not been in touch with them.

"We regularly do provide monitoring of people returned by the Coast Guard to Cuba," he said.

"There would be no reason not to include them."

Preparations for the dangerous voyage began in November at the home of Hernández, Blanco, and Blanco's nephew, Alexis González Blanco, 28. They used wood, sheets of aluminum from the roof, and inner tubes to fashion a 22-foot boat. Several others from the nearby city of Matanzas, including Ernesto Hernández Santana, 48, who had a small business fixing flat tires, worked with them.

He had tried six times to leave Cuba in boats; each time he was thwarted, usually by Cuban patrols.

The 15 climbed into the boat and shoved off Jan. 2. After almost two days at sea, the diesel engine ran out of fuel. Then, González Blanco said, something akin to a miracle happened: About 22 miles off the coast of Marathon, they found a container full of gasoline floating on the waves. The Toyota engine sputtered on a fuel it was not meant to burn, but early on the morning of Jan. 4 they were close enough to row toward shore.

Bucking the wind, the 15 Cubans, including Jhon Maikol and one other child, Osniel Hernández, 12, passed under Old Seven Mile Bridge, deciding to make landfall on the span because it was lower and easier to climb onto, Blanco said.

"We did not want to risk anymore because of the child," Blanco said. "We knew they could not return us if our feet were dry."

When the Coast Guard arrived, the Cubans were ordered aboard a cutter, González Blanco said, and crewmen told them they would be taken to the United States for processing. "They said, `You're going to be drinking beer, be free, learn English, be in Florida,'" he said.

But after five days at sea and several transfers to other Coast Guard vessels, the 15 found themselves back in Cuba.

"When we saw the hills of Cuba, you can imagine," Blanco said. "All that work, all that sacrifice. ... It's not easy."

In San Francisco de Paula, a town of about 2,000 residents 90 minutes east of Havana, Blanco, Hernández and their son are living with his father, sleeping on a bed set up in the living room. The illegal attempt to leave cost the couple their home and Blanco his job as a stonecutter, although he has recently returned to work.

On Wednesday, the Hernándezes awaited a call from Miami from Cuban American activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez, who stopped eating for 11 days to bring attention to the plight of the 15 Cubans.

Soon, others who had been on the boat began to arrive: Rosa María Rodríguez, 46, the wife of Hernández Santana and their son, Hermes Hernández Pons, 22; Marino Hernández Pavón, 41, the father of Osniel; Lazaró Jesus Martínez, 31; Tomás Perdomo Robaina, 42; Noel Lazaró Reyes Blanco, 36, and his brother Emiliano Alejandro Batista Blanco, 31; and Carlos Enrique Fernández, 36.

The only one of the 15 not present in the house Wednesday was Lazaró Medina, 36.

While the effects of the court decision remained unclear, the news clearly put the Cubans in a jubilant mood.

"I have faith, confidence," said Hernández Santana. "But if we learn one day that it won't work [to get us to the U.S.], I'll leave that day on a coconut if I have to."

Staff Writers Madeline Baró Diaz and Vanessa Blum contributed to this report.