The Miami Herald
Wed, Jul. 14, 2004
Victims of tugboat's sinking by Cuban vessels honored
On the 10th anniversary of the sinking of a tugboat in Havana Harbor,
several ceremonies in Miami-Dade memorialized the 37 people who drowned
fleeing Cuba.
BY ELAINE DE VALLE
Gustavo Martinez doesn't really need the memorials.
He still has nightmares about the day -- July 13, 1994 -- that his wife
and 5-month-old daughter drowned in Havana Harbor. They were two of at
least 37 people killed after Cuban government vessels rammed a tugboat
carrying 68 people fleeing the island, then used high-pressure water
cannons to flood the compartment, wash people overboard and tear
children from their mothers' arms.
It took three minutes to sink the boat, eight miles from land.
Martinez can still hear the screams, the passengers below banging on
the ceiling for help -- and his wife's pleas.
``Gustavo! My God! Gustavo! Help me!''
He couldn't help her. Or his baby girl, Hellen. He could only save
himself and his 9-year-old son.
Martinez, who came to South Florida recently with his son, doesn't need
any help to recall those moments.
But on Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of the deaths, he was joined by
thousands of people who paid respects to the victims of the tugboat
sinking at several memorial ceremonies.
`A MASSACRE'
''This was a massacre,'' said Neri Martínez, 22, coordinator of
the Free Cuba Foundation, a student group that organized a vigil at
Florida International University. The group marked 10 minutes of
silence, one for each year that has passed.
''It's a silent call for justice,'' Martínez said. ``Not only
are we remembering the victims, but we are also condemning the crimes
committed by the Cuban government on its own people.''
The incident was documented by the Organization of American States
Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, which requested an
explanation from the Cuban government in 1996. Cuba still has not
responded.
Amnesty International also issued a report condemning the act, as well
as the harassment of survivors and families of those who died.
Relatives were prohibited from having memorial ceremonies on the island.
CLINGING TO MOTHER
''We were told to stay quiet, not to tell anyone what had happened. But
we did,'' said Mayda Tacoronte, who lost her sister, two nieces and a
nephew but was able to hang on to a piece of the boat's wood for an
hour -- with her 3-year-old daughter clinging to her neck.
Mylena Labrada, now 13, still sees a psychologist. ''The doctor says to
let her talk about it when she's ready, not to press her,'' Tacoronte
said, as she tossed sunflowers and daisies into the bay behind the
national shrine to Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's patron saint. Tacoronte
and her daughter were among dozens of participants at a memorial
organized by the Democracia Movement, which preceded a Mass, officiated
by Bishop Agustín Román.
''This is not just a crime against children, women and men,'' said
Ramón Saúl Sánchez, founder of the Democracia
Movement. ``It's a crime against humanity.''
Behind him, 37 makeshift grave markers -- white, wooden crosses on
inner tubes with laminated photos of each known victim -- were lined up
on the seawall. While there are some who say there were 41 victims,
only 37 have been identified.
CONSTANT REMINDER
The memorials, Sánchez said, are important as a constant
reminder to the world.
''It's important to make sure we don't have in the future a government
that is capable of committing this crime and still sitting in
international forums as if it was a democratic country,'' he said.
Among the victims: 14 from Jorge García's family. The
59-year-old, who has lived in Miami since 1999, said he could have been
one of them.
''I gave up my space so that the younger people could go,''
García said Tuesday. ``I thought it was the right thing to do,
to get them out of that darkness. They were young. They had their whole
lives ahead of them. There was no future in Cuba.
``I was a grandfather already.''
His brother-in-law, chief of operations for the Havana Port Authority,
organized the trip and arranged for 17 family members to be on board.
Among those lost: García's son, Joel García Suarez, 20;
his grandson, Juan Gutiérrez García, 10; and 12 others,
including the brother-in-law who planned the escape.
Only García's daughter -- who was too distraught to attend any
ceremonies Tuesday -- and two nephews were spared.
GREEK FREIGHTER
He and Tacoronte and several other survivors insist they would have
been dead, too, had it not been for a Greek freighter that appeared
after the survivors -- some of them hanging on to debris -- treaded
water for about an hour.
At that point, he and others said, the Cuban boats plucked them from
the water.
''The government would have let them all drown if there had been no
witnesses,'' said García, who wrote a book about the tragedy,
published in 2001 and was given a human rights award by the United
Nations in 1998 for his efforts to denounce the incident.
NOT SEEKING REVENGE
''There are those who think that we should be full of rancor and a
thirst for vengeance,'' García said. ``But I don't want revenge.
I feel sorry for the people who assassinated my family.''
He does, however, want a trial.
''I can never be compensated for my loss. I will never be happy again
with my family surrounding me. There will always be a tinge of
sadness,'' García said.
``But I do want there to be a trial so that this situation can serve as
a lesson and that these people or others like them in other parts of
the world, don't do this kind of thing again. Not in Cuba. Not
anywhere.''