Bodies found floating off Florida Keys ID'd as Cuban rafters

[Mika]

Time to end the Wet Foot/ Dry Foot policy for Cubans, and also the Cuban Adjustment Act.

In a normalized environment these persons would have been able to travel here legally, or if they didn't qualify for a legal US visa there would be no incentive for them to have taken such a dangerous (deadly) trip.

President Obama and congress simply MUST address this issue.

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Bodies found floating off Florida Keys ID'd as Cuban rafters
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1035928.html

BY CAMMY CLARK
[e-mail]

KEY LARGO -- Days after Tropical Storm Fay swept through the Florida Keys last August, four decomposed bodies chewed by sharks were discovered floating by fishermen and boaters over a 33-mile stretch.

Their faces were unrecognizable. Their identities a mystery.

But desperate families from Miami to Havana thought they knew who the victims might be: men from a group of eight who fled Cuba on a homemade raft to avoid being jailed for their human rights activism.

''I began getting Q-tips in the mail from Cuba,'' said detective Terry Smith of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. ``The families were trying to send us swabs . . . to be tested for DNA. They were so frantic to try to identify their loved ones.''

It took eight months, but with the help of an independent journalist in Cuba and the Cuban Democracy Movement in Miami, Smith and Monroe County Medical Examiner E. Hunt Scheuerman have identified the bodies using DNA, a tattoo, an uncle's identification and the process of elimination.

They are: Jorge Gonzalez, 19; Osmani Segura, 35; Rolando Alberna, age unknown; and Ivan Pelaez, age unknown.

''They were being harassed so much by the government, they had to leave,'' said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, founder of Democracy Movement.

''Cuban gunboats have harassed other dissidents who have tried to leave, throwing bags of sand from helicopters to try to sink their rafts,'' Sánchez said. ``This is why they leave during storms, when they think the government won't look for them. This is why they die.''

Umberto Gonzalez, the grandfather of Jorge Gonzalez, said Wednesday his son told him about the planned journey on the raft made of wood and air tanks tied together with rope.

'I told my son: `That's crazy,' '' Gonzalez said. 'My son said, `Don't worry. It's a good boat. He will be safe.' ''

OTHERS LOST

The raft and the others on board were never found. They were: Raul Alberna, Elmer Perez, Rolando Aguirre and Dairon Diaz.

On Aug. 21, the first body was found by a lobster fisherman about two miles offshore from mile marker 71 near Long Key. The next day, a second body was found four miles north of the first one.

In the afternoon, two more were found in the Upper Keys, off the shores of Tavernier and Key Largo. Smith figured they had been in the water just a few days.

The four bodies were on stretchers stacked like bunk beds in the Monroe County morgue for the past months, awaiting identification.

''Every one of the local family members wanted to come look,'' Smith said. ``They did not have any idea the poor, poor conditions the bodies were in.''

It didn't take long -- after ruling out fallen cruise ship passengers and missing boaters from the United States -- for Smith to conclude that the men probably were Cuban migrants.

Just nine days after the first body was found, Smith met with the county's new medical examiner. Not long after that, Sánchez began gathering information from the families in South Florida and e-mailed back and forth with an independent journalist in Cuba. That journalist gathered information about the men from family members on the Communist island.

In January, Segura was the first to be identified, by mitrochondrial DNA supplied by his mother, Nilda Garcia, a home health aide who lives in Miami.

Sánchez went to her home. Before he could say anything, Garcia told him: ''Please don't bring me bad news.'' Then she started crying.

She now has his ashes.

Rolando Alberna was identified next. His sister, who lives in Miami, supplied mitrochondrial DNA. While it was a match, it also could have belonged to her other brother, Raul, who also was on the raft.

SIZE OF THE FRAME

An uncle, the only relative allowed to view any of the bodies, identified the remains as belonging to Rolando because of the size of the frame. Rolando was much bigger than Raul.

Pelaez had no relatives in the U.S., which meant no DNA comparisons. He was identified by a tattoo under his bottom lip. It said: ''Raquel,'' the name of his wife.

Gonzalez was the most difficult to identify. But he had an unusual characteristic: curly, brown hair. The others had wavy, black hair.

He also had a fracture to his right arm and was the youngest of the group. Examination of the body determined an old arm fracture and an age of 19 to 22. Gonzalez was the only one of the eight that young.

''This was a humanitarian case and not a criminal case,'' Monroe County Sheriff Bob Peryam said. ``Some agencies could not dedicate the manpower or time it took.''

The identification took months longer than family members hoped because of the lack of cooperation from the Cuban government, Smith said.

Because of this case, Sánchez sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D.-N.J., requesting assistance in establishing a channel for collecting DNA samples from relatives in Cuba.

''My son told me: Wait for your grandson. He'll be with you tomorrow,'' Umberto Gonzalez said. ``But tomorrow never came.''