Vancouver Sun

ON PATROL WITH THE FLIERS WHO RESCUE REFUGEES

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."
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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
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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.

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