The frustrated dream of a Cuban refugee who spent 15 hours at sea

More than 15 hours after the start of your second attempt to reach the United States, Leonardo Herrera was convinced he had seen Florida.

the 23-year-old mechanic from Boyeros, CubaHe had focused on the waves shaking and lifting the wooden boat carrying him and 11 other Cubans, and all their hopes for a future without repression or deprivation. The dolphins accompanied them. When Herrera looked up, he thought he saw the long-awaited coastline, even though it was several miles away. His companions exploded with joy; the men kissed and the women cried.

Maybe the celebration explains why they didn’t notice the US Coast Guard plane before it was overhead. A few minutes later, a coast guard ship approached and within four days it was back in Cuban territory.

A Cuban speaks in our country: “They assured us a minimum of food so as not to die or go out in the street”

On May 28, Herrera became one of hundreds of Cuban migrants who were intercepted this year by the Coast Guard. Covid and an economic crisis have devastated the communist island, causing an explosion of street demonstrations and an avalanche of rafters which sail for nearly 150 kilometers to cross the Strait of Florida. Frustration spills the streets and the Cuban regime is cracking down on protests, so the United States has strictly warned potential refugees not to venture out. Herrera doubts they are listening.

Herrera first attempted to flee in January. He attempted to travel illegally on a plane to the United States, but was arrested by police and spent a week in jail, he told Bloomberg in an interview.

The Cuban economy suffered an unprecedented collapse last year, contracting 11%, after the pandemic wiped out tourist dollars and the Trump administration tightened a six-decade trade embargo. Frustration and desperation drove thousands of people to flee by land through Mexico and, increasingly, by sea.

An island that is no longer inert

The Coast Guard said it has captured 554 Cuban migrants so far this year, up from 49 in fiscal 2020. This migration had been greatly reduced compared to 5,396 in 2016, when it was facilitated with the so-called “dry feet, wet feet”, which paved the way for citizenship if Cubans entered American shores. President Barack Obama lifted the measure in the last days of his second term.

Herrera was not concerned about his legal status. He sold his computer to pay $ 400 for a site on an open boat powered by a single diesel engine. The boat left Baracoa Beach, some 27 kilometers west of Havana, on May 27. The young man was traveling alone with peanuts, bread, water and a backpack with clean clothes.

“More than 15 hours at sea, under the sun and the rain, and in vain”she said through tears.

The migrants were picked up and transferred to another Coast Guard vessel where other Cubans were being held. They were returned to the island on May 31, weeks before the protests began.

Herrera was released from Cuban quarantine on June 5. And quickly began to look for a passage in another boat.