Milena Gonzalez Martinez recovers at Holy Cross Hospital after being rescued by the Coast Gaurd Thursday afternoon. Her ex- husband Orlando Gonzalez visits her with his new family daughter Alexa and wife Margie Gonzalez. Milena and Orlando have two children still in Cuba, they are trying to get them to the U.S.

By Rafael A. Olmeda, Tanya Weinberg and Vanessa Bauzá
Sun-Sentinel

Two of the three refugees who came ashore Thursday after a harrowing journey from Cuba were moved to a private hospital room Friday, their conditions and spirits dramatically improved after a day in the United States.

The third, Milena Gonzalez Martinez, remained in the intensive care unit at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, anxious to be reunited with the twin sons she left behind more than a week ago.

Her ex-husband, who is calling on the United States government to help bring the twins to Florida, visited Gonzalez on Friday night.

Gonzalez and the other two survivors are all that remain among eight Cubans who set out on March 18 on rafts created by tying inner tubes together, with only paddles to propel them. Towering waves, an early end to the group's water supply, and delirium are believed to have led to the drowning deaths of the five.

William Villavicencio Perez, 31, and Carlos Bringier Hernandez, 38, managed to reach shore. Coast Guard officers who noticed Gonzalez floating alone on an inner tube were able to rescue her before she could make it to the beach just north of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. The Coast Guard called off a search for other survivors late Friday morning.

Villavicencio and Bringier organized the trip for more than a month, meeting at night to avoid authorities who knew that Bringier tried to flee 13 times before.

"We were nervous," Bringier said from his hospital bed Friday. "We knew this trip was almost impossible."

Asked why they would undertake an "impossible" journey, he lifted his right finger in an almost scolding manner.

"Almost," he said. "But not impossible. With man, many things are impossible. But not with God."

Some of the men who died simply stood up on the raft and walked into the sea, delirious, the survivors said. Only one, whose name was Angel, had last words.

"He said, `Don't leave me here,'" said Villavicencio, eyes cast down at the knowledge that he couldn't keep such a promise.

One of the dead, Nerivel Suarez, was Gonzalez' husband. She said he was among the first to show signs of despair, and was the first to drown.

"He kept jumping up and down and saying we should jump into the water and swim for the shore," she said. "I told him to calm down, hang on to the raft. But he kept jumping off. The waves were high and he swallowed a lot of water."

Villavicencio and Bringier lay in the same hospital room Friday, their feet draped with American flag towels someone donated earlier in the day. They struggled to come up with something to say to the families of the five men who died in the Florida Straits.

"There was never any fighting," said Villavicencio, his chest still bright red with a sunburn. "Everyone behaved. We were good to each other until the end."

Neither immigration authorities nor medical staff think the case involved smugglers, who sometimes use go-fast boats to drop would-be immigrants off in rafts near shore.

Dr. Carlos Bejar, a kidney specialist who treated Perez, said the conditions he saw were consistent with someone who has been at sea for days.

"The way his kidneys were, there's no way this is something that happened over a few hours," he said.

Once they are released from the hospital, the three survivors will be interviewed by immigration officials at the Krome detention center, said Border Patrol spokesman Lazaro Guzman. Immigration authorities would not comment on the case, but once Cuban refugees are processed at Krome they are generally released within a few days. After one year, Cubans are eligible for permanent residency.

Now Gonzalez's ex-husband is calling on the U.S. government to grant his 14-year-old sons permission to enter the country so they can be united.

"It's just like with Elián. I'm a father and I have the right," said Orlando Consuegra, 36. "Actually, more of a right because their mother is here also, and they are alone there."

Gonzalez left the twins with her mother in Havana.

Because he is a permanent resident, Consuegra could petition for his sons to join him, but the process could take years. He is asking the U.S. government to grant the twins humanitarian parole, which would permit them to enter the country immediately. Friday, Consuegra secured the support of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami) in seeking his request.

Federal immigration authorities say such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Fidel Castro would also have to give Gonzalez and Consuegra's sons permission to travel. Neither is a sure thing.

While the Elián González controversy raged through South Florida, Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera helped form New Generation Cuba here to work to reunite Cuban families. She said hundreds remain divided, but she felt optimistic in the Consuegras' case.

"I think that maybe because this is a political year maybe they will have a better chance than other people had," Rodriguez said.

In Havana, both of the boys' grandmothers said they want them to go to Florida.

"Their parents' wish is to have their children with them, and it's their wish to be with their parents," said Sonia Martinez, the boys' maternal grandmother. "There is no reason for them not to be with their parents. The Cuban government wants children to be with their parents."

The teens said they, too, wanted to join their parents. Friday evening they caught the first glimpse of their mother's rescue that a neighbor had taped off a WSVC-Ch. 51 broadcast. The twins knew their mother was planning to make the journey to Florida, and had told her not to, that they were scared. The day she left she did not tell them.

"For two days I couldn't sleep, but I knew she would make it because she's strong," said Orlando Consuegra, who shares his father's name. "I want to be with her, hug her."

Also in Havana, the wives of two of the men now presumed to have drowned at sea, held onto hope.

Juanita González said it was her husband, Antonio Pantoja Rodriguez's, third attempt to leave the island on a raft. "I have faith he may be alive," she said. Pantoja, 36, was a dissident and worked occasionally as a carpenter's assistant, she said.

Glenis Faure Fonseca said she tried to talk her husband Fernando Aguilera, 34, out of leaving the island on a raft.

"He was desperate," she said.

Villavicencio and Bringier said Aguilera was with them on the last day of the journey, and that the three broke away from Gonzalez and two of the others who were alive.

"He was shaking," Villavicencio said. "We tried to get him to calm down. We told him to open his eyes, to look at the buildings. We were almost there."

But Aguilera wouldn't listen, they said. He stood up on one of the inner tubes and a wave knocked him off. They never saw him again.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4207.

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