A Cuban refugee, one of three who stole a 16-foot Navy launch in September and escaped from the Guantanamo Naval Base, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities as he was about to reach Miami and repatriated to Cuba, authorities said Wednesday.
Yordanis Figueroa, 23, and two other men stole the single-engine craft Sept. 5 precisely because they were afraid of being expelled from the base and sent back to Cuban territory.
The launch was found Sept. 10 by the Panamanian freighter Yerimu, out of fuel near the coast of Haiti, about 100 miles east of Guantanamo. Figueroa, the only one still aboard, was rescued by the freighter and stayed aboard it until Saturday, when the Y erimu pulled into Miami.
During his three-week Caribbean odyssey, he had asked for political asylum in at least eight countries the ship visited, but was turned down by all of them, shipping agents said.
``Before he could leave the ship in Miami, the authorities took him into custody,'' said an official at Bernuth Agencies Inc., which manages the ship. If he had stepped foot on Florida soil, he could have begun proceedings for political asylum, but he was detained before he could.
Figueroa was returned to Guantanamo and Wednesday he was turned over to Cuban officials outside the base. Figueroa faces a possible prison sentence for illegal attempt to flee the island.
``I feel so badly for him,'' Lourdes Quirch of the Guantanamo Refugee Assistance Program. ``He hoped he would be able to experience freedom and he didn't.''
One of the other would-be escapees, Lizardo Sanchez Garcia, 25, swam ashore in Haiti and is being held by Haitian immigration authorities, according to Quirch. He has asked Haiti for asylum, although it is not clear how his case will be resolved.
The third man, Gilberto Rodriguez Creach, 29, was lost at sea and is presumed dead.
Copyright © 1996 The Miami Herald