FROM THE SEA Sat Jun 19 1993 Page: B3 Section: Insight Byline: STEWART BELL Dateline: Miami Source: VANSUN Illustrations: BROTHERS TO THE RESCUE: Pre-flight prayer lead by Jose Basuho (right)
MIAMI - As the airplane banks and turns
above the hurricane-battered islands that separate Cuba from the United States, the two pilots look through the cockpit window and fix their Ray-Ban-covered eyes on the narrow strip of land below. They scan the small, rocky islands, checking to see if anyone has washed ashore while trying to escape to Florida from one of the few remaining Communist countries in the world. They see only an abandoned lighthouse and the remains of a wooden skiff. But somewhere below, on the lemonade-colored sea, Roxana Rodriguez is drifting in a boat with seven other Cubans. She left two days ago, hoping to start a new life in Miami. The pilots, volunteers with a Miami-based group called Brothers to the Rescue, know Roxana is out there because her brother, Manuel, called from Havana and told them. She is only one of 26 people known to be drifting in rafts on this day in a desperate attempt to get out of Cuba. "We tell them not to leave Cuba," says Billy Schuss, co-founder of Brothers to the Rescue. "We tell them they're going to die if they do, because only one out of four makes it." Infomart
But they come anyway - 5,000 of them
over the past two years, up from 500 in 1990 and 50 in 1988. "It's a shame this is all happening because of one man," Schuss says. The man Schuss refers to is Fidel Castro, who has led Cuba since 1959. After more than three decades of Castro communism, the Cuban economy is a shambles. And desparate Cubans are getting into small boats, inner tubes and even wooden boxes and attempting the 200-kilometre journey north to Key West, Fla. Brothers to the Rescue was formed three years ago to try to ensure that those who attempt the voyage do not die on the way. It all began when 15-year-old Gregory Peres made it across the Straits of Florida in a tiny raft only to die in the arms of a coast guard officer. Schuss decided then that something had to be done to help the boat people. Schuss had fled to Miami after Castro seized power, and later took part in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, a raid by CIA-trained Cuban exiles that was supposed to topple the dictator. He went to his friend Jose Basulto, a pilot and also a Bay of Pigs veteran. The two Page 1
began flying over the straits looking for
rafts. It wasn't long before they found one. They notified the coast guard, four rafters were rescued and Schuss and Basulto held a press conference to announce they were looking for help to continue their task. The money poured in, and so did the volunteers. There are now 30 volunteer pilots. To date, they have flown 456 missions and rescued 660 people. "It's an experience you can't imagine, saving a life," says Steve Walton, an American Airlines pilot who volunteers with the group. "It grabs you and it gives you a high and it's kind of addictive." They don't always find the rafters in time. They have found 44 empty rafts, the occupants likely drowned in storms. After one particularly bad storm in April, they found five empty rafts in a single day.
A little later, a Cuban gunboat appears
below. Walton tells me to keep an eye on the boat. If I see a flash, I am to tell him right away. It means they have launched a missile at us. "That's provided they've been able to keep that Russian crap together," he says. After five hours in the air, my eyes are aching from staring into the ocean for so long. We have seen a U.S. Navy frigate, a couple of freighters, lots of fishing boats and a sailboat flying a Canadian flag. But we have seen no rafts, and we are running low on fuel. We bank away from the Cuban coastline and head to Key West. Roxana and the others will have to take care of themselves for now. 1993 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
But the sky is clear and the water fairly
calm as we fly south over the Tropic of Cancer and towards the coast of Cuba in the four-seat Cessna owned by the Brothers. The plane is accompanied by a second, flown by Basulto. The Cessna pilots, Walton and Ivan Domaniewicz, fly low along the water to increase the chances of spotting a raft amongst the whitecaps. They dare not take their eyes from the water, knowing that if they do they could miss a raft. When the outline of Cuba appears in the horizon, Basulto radios Havana to say the planes are entering Cuban air space. The radio operator in Havana calls back to say the planes are in a restricted area and must get out.