Cuba cracking down on migrant smuggling http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-04-12T225734Z_01_N12366864_RTRUKOC
Wed Apr 12, 2006
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban prosecutors asked for 25-year jail sentences for three Mexican fishermen charged with smuggling people out of Cuba by boat to Mexico, diplomatic sources said.
The harsh sentences were sought by the island's Communist authorities as they move to crack down on the increasing number of smugglers ferrying Cuban migrants to Mexico, where they try to cross into the United States.
The Mexicans, who were arrested on a boat stranded off Cuba in May 2005, went on trial in the city of Cienfuegos on Wednesday. The trio are among 12 Mexicans jailed in Cuba for people smuggling.
They were accused of attempting to smuggle out 17 people, including four children, when the boat's engine failed.
"They did not deny anything," a diplomat, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
Last week, Cuba said it would take a hard line on smugglers.
On April 5, the Cuban coast guard shot at three suspected migrant smugglers as they approached the southwestern coast of the island. One was killed and another wounded.
The two surviving smugglers were arrested. Cuban officials said they were Cuban-Americans operating a 40-foot (12-meter) Miami-registered launch from the Mexican resort of Cancun that had made several trips to Cuba.
The Cuban government has denounced the existence of a smuggling network financed by anti-Castro exiles in Miami that is landing migrants in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula purportedly in collusion with local immigration officials.
"This mafia not only operates from Miami. It has set up an organization that operates from Mexico, using remote places for new routes," Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in August. He criticized Mexico for tolerating the smugglers and not returning the Cuban migrants.
Hundreds of Cubans try to cross the Florida Straits each year to escape economic hardship in their country. Many board speedboats manned by smugglers who charge between $8,000 and $10,000 per passenger for the crossing.
Since the United States tightened border security in the wake of September 11, the U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted rising numbers of Cubans trying to reach Florida by sea.
Migration experts say Cuban emigres are finding it easier to cross over to Mexico and travel up to the U.S.-Mexican border where they are guaranteed entry to the United States under a controversial U.S. policy that favors Cuban exiles.
Jose Pertierra, an immigration lawyer in Washington, said, "the Mexican route has become popular in recent years due to increased Coast Guard patrols in the Florida Straits. It is easier to get into Mexico because corruption there is enormous."
To cross into the United States from Mexico, all Cuban migrants need to do is say they are Cuban, he said.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel)
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.