Six Cuban balseros are missing after they left for Honduras in a raft 15 days ago. The six were briefly mistaken for six other Cubans who arrived in Honduras.

BY KRISTEN BOLT

For several days, Marta Olay has put off calling her mother-in-law and shattering her hopes.

Olay's husband and five balseros who left Cuba on July 6 are still missing.

There was a moment of elation last week, when Radio Mambi announced six Cubans had landed in Honduras on a homemade raft. From their description, her mother-in-law, still in Cuba, joyfully called Olay with the news, certain her son was one of them. She still thinks so.

But Olay, who is in Miami, knows better. The six, she has learned, are another group of Cubans, hoping to get to the United States but unable to reach their relatives in Miami.

''I am going crazy,'' said Olay, who came to Miami just two weeks after her wedding in May.

Members of her family are calling all over Central America, searching for news of her husband.

She is not yet ready to tell her new mother-in-law.

''Why should I destroy her again when I still do not know?'' she said.

''I am going to wait a little while,'' she said, before letting her voice drop, ``but it has been too long -- almost a month.''

Her husband, Jorge Luis Eguiguren Rodriguez, and 11 other men left Havana in the late-night darkness on July 6.

They planned to go to Honduras, using a channel where the currents and winds were in their favor.

Some days later, four of the men drowned.

Six wanted to keep going, but the two remaining survivors fought to return to Cuba. They argued.

Finally, they cut off a piece of the raft and split into two parties.

When the two men got back to Cuba, they recounted what happened.

BAD NEWS

From the six, there was no word.

Then, about a week ago, Radio Mambi had news.

''My husband's mother called me from Cuba and told me that a group of Cuban refugees had landed in Honduras -- one of them even had the same name as a man on my husband's raft,'' Olay said.

Her family approached Honduran Unity, a Miami organization, seeking help in contacting the men in Honduras, as did families of some of the other men.

The volunteers jumped at the chance to lend a hand.

They found the men in the care of the Red Cross of Honduras.

But in a bitter twist of irony, these six stranded Cuban rafters had nothing to do with Olay and the others who had initiated the search. This group had left from Santa Cruz del Sur, Camaguey, on the southern border of Cuba.

''Just try to imagine it,'' Olay said.

``One minute, my husband is missing, and could be dead. Then, he is alive in Honduras. Then he is missing, and could be dead. I am devastated.''

`ANYBODY BUT CUBA'

The balseros in Honduras were also desperately searching for their relatives in Miami, clutching scraps of paper bearing scrawled names and phone numbers on which they pinned their cherished ambitions for a new life.

These men are lucky -- Honduran Immigration authorities gave each of them a work authorization permit.

The fate of the others remains unknown, although the Red Cross said that all Honduran ports are on alert for their possible arrival.

''Have you heard of your ABC's?'' asked Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation.

``Anybody But Cuba: they are just trying to get out of Cuba with any opportunity.''

''Some will stay in Honduras, but a lot will hopscotch north to the U.S.,'' Garcia said.

``They have been fortunate to get work visas.''

Garcia noted that ``these Central American countries have always received dozens of refugees throughout the years, but in the last few years, there has been a small increase.''

''The distance is short, and there is a lot of Cuban trade there,'' Garcia continued. ``Honduran ports are among the closest to Cuba, and with good weather, it is not such a bad passage.''

HOPEFUL

As for Marta Olay, who went to her wedding with her plane tickets and visa already in hand, she clings to the hope that she will one day be reunited with her husband.

''I miss you,'' he said to her on the phone, just days before he launched his own clandestine journey.

``I can't take it here anymore.''

''I was so afraid for him, but what could I say?'' Olay said.