'They were trying to save their families'

  BY JENNIFER BABSON, ELAINE DE VALLE AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI

  KEY WEST - Five Cubans concealed aboard a disabled 21-foot motorboat towed into port by the U.S. Coast Guard popped out of their hiding place and
  scampered onto a dock before they could be stopped, virtually winning the right to remain in the country.

  But left on the boat, unable to manage the few steps from the boat to dry land, was the teenage son of one of the Cubans. And for most of the day
  Tuesday, U.S. authorities wrestled with the question of what to do with the 14-year-old, who under normal circumstances likely would have been taken
  back to Cuba.

  In the end, U.S. Justice Department officials defused a potential controversy when they ordered the boy brought to shore. The reason: The boy is to be a
  witness against two Miami men who allegedly piloted the boat and are accused of attempting to smuggle him in along with his father and the four
  others.

  The upshot is the boy, his father and their companions, like all Cubans whose feet touch U.S. soil, will likely be allowed to stay in the United States.
  Those detained at sea are routinely repatriated.

  'Right now, the decision to `dry-foot' him has been made as a prosecutorial decision that he is a material witness,'' said Jacqueline Becerra, a
  spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.

  Becerra said Tuesday night that the boy was not yet reunited with his father, who was being held with the other boat passengers by federal authorities.

  ANOTHER TWIST

  The case may have another wrinkle: Relatives of the alleged smugglers -- identified as Elizardo Ruiz Alvarez and Martin Mendez Diaz -- said the people
  they are accused of smuggling in are their relatives.

  Mirta Mendez, who said she is Martin Mendez's wife, said the 14-year-old is her nephew, and his father, whom she referred to as Leonel, is her brother.

  Other relatives said Ruiz's girlfriend, Daileen Abreu, was the lone woman among the passengers.

  Luis Crespo, who identified himself as a cousin of Ruiz's, said it was not a for-profit smuggling operation.

  ''They were trying to save their families,'' he said outside the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade, where family members gathered to await
  developments. ``There was no money involved.''

  FLOWN BY HELICOPTER

  The boy, whose name was not released Tueasday night, was flown Tuesday evening by helicopter from Key West to Miami, where authorities held a
  closed hearing in federal court. Later, the teenager was expected to be turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for placement, at least
  temporarily, in a facility for minors.

  ''Because he is a minor INS has to keep him in a facility that is appropriate for minors,'' Becerra said. ``I don't know if that eventually means he is with
  his father or not.''

  But a Justice official who asked not to be identified said authorities expect to eventually reunite the two.

  ''The authorities are not believing the story of the adult males. They are believing the kid,'' the official said. 'The five adults are saying they left in a rickety
  boat and they were found by these two other gentlemen at sea. The kid is saying, `No, they picked us up in Cuba.' ''

  The boy's testimony will likely be used at trial, the official said.

  ''Once that is accomplished, the minor will obviously be united with his father,'' the official said.

  ELIAN ANNIVERSARY

  Monday's surprise disembarkation was especially charged because it came on the third anniversary of the rescue at sea of another Cuban boy, Elián
  González, whose ensuing plight touched off an international custody dispute between his father in Cuba and relatives in the United States.

  The INS declined to comment on the new boy's situation Tuesday, saying it was part of an ongoing investigation. But agency spokeswoman Barbara
  Gonzalez acknowledged that officials did not fail to notice the coincidence of the date with Elián's arrival.

  ''This is me speaking, not on behalf of the service: Nothing surprises me,'' Gonzalez said.

  This new case differs in several important aspects, not the least of which is that the boy and his father are both alive and on U.S. soil. Elián's mother died
  on the crossing from Cuba.

  U.S. authorities believe the boy's mother may still be in Cuba, though the father is reportedly claiming custody of the boy. Even if his mother should try to
  press a custody claim, legal experts say he is old enough at 14 to successfully assert his desire to stay -- unlike Elián, who at age 5 was too young to
  apply for asylum without his father's agreement.

  ''The kid says he lived with his father in Cuba,'' the Justice Department official said. ``This is not Elián, Part Two. We haven't heard from Castro, and we
  haven't heard from the kid's mother.''

  The arrival of this group of Cubans also comes in the wake of controversy surrounding the detention of some 235 Haitians who spilled out of a boat onto
  the Rickenbacker Causeway last month. Nineteen Haitian men were repatriated because they were picked out of the water by the Coast Guard before
  they could reach shore.

  The two Miami-Dade men accused of smuggling in the Cuban boy will appear before a U.S. magistrate today. Elizardo Ruiz, records show, is the owner of
  a 21-foot Wellcraft boat.

  Tania Crespo, a cousin of one of the boat passengers, described Ruiz as a Miami boat mechanic who arrived from Cuba about seven years ago. She said
  he left for Cuba several days ago on a 21-foot boat to pick up family members.

  Ruiz's former landlord in Hialeah remembered him as a hardworking young man with a passion for sea-faring.

  He said Ruiz worked as a boat repairman at a Hialeah mechanic shop and spent most of his time fishing on his 21-foot boat.

  ''He loved that boat and he spent a lot of his time on the water, but I never knew him to make any trips to Cuba with it,'' said José González, who rented
  a room in his home to Ruiz until last year.

  LEFT FROM MARIEL

  Becerra, the U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman, said the group departed from the port of Mariel, Cuba.

  At about 7:05 a.m. Monday, the Coast Guard was contacted by a tanker that spotted a small boat tossing and disabled in about five-foot seas about 25
  miles south of Key West. Two men were at the helm.

  The tanker towed the Florida-registered boat closer to Key West, while the Coast Guard ran a check on Florida driver's licenses information the men
  provided.

  No criminal histories popped up on the federal and local databases that were checked.

  And no one checked a cabin inside the boat.

  ''We could not put a boarding team on because of the bad weather conditions,'' said Luis Diaz, a Coast Guard spokesman.

  By 2 p.m., a 23-foot Coast Guard patrol boat was on the scene, and eventually began to tow the boat toward Key West, where it arrived at 3:41 p.m.

  Fourteen minutes later, a Coast Guard boarding team of three or four men began to inspect the boat.

  ''We opened the forward hatch and found six Cuban migrants,'' Diaz said. ''They jumped out and everybody started running'' to the dock.

  The 14-year old boy, however, did not.

  ''I don't know if he froze, or what,'' Diaz said.

  Herald staff writers Oscar Corral, Elisabeth Donovan, Tere Figueras, Tim Johnson, Larry Lebowitz, Renato Perez, Nancy San Martin, Jay Weaver and Luisa
  Yanez contributed to this report.