By JOHN LANTIGUA and CAROL ROSENBERG
Herald Staff Writers
Three Cuban refugees held at Guantanamo Naval Base, apparently afraid they would soon be forced to return to Cuba, stole a 16-foot United States Navy launch and escaped the island earlier this month, U.S. government and military sources confirmed Tuesday.
The escape came the morning of Sept. 5, when the men were assigned to a work detail washing boats. The launch, equipped with a single outboard motor, was encountered the night of Sept. 10, 100 miles to the east off the coast of Haiti, just as Hurricane Hortense approached. It had run out of fuel.
Only one escapee was still on board and was rescued by a Panamanian-flag freighter which spotted the small craft in rough waters.
``We have information that one of the other two men swam to the coast of Haiti and was possibly spotted by a member of the Haitian police in that area, but we haven't confirmed that,'' said a State Department spokesman. ``The other person, for the moment, appears to have been lost.''
All three men had snuck onto U.S. territory at Guantanamo, had immigration cases pending, and faced possible deportation back to Cuba. About a dozen Cubans on the base share that situation.
Another 27 Cubans at the base have been assured they will not be sent back to Cuba because they face political persecution there. Some of them began a hunger strike Saturday in a church on Guantanamo because of delays in resolving just where they will be sent to live.
Lt. Cmdr. Bob Ross of Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Va., which oversees Guantanamo, said the escape of the three men was discovered shortly after it occurred. He said the boat was equipped with life preservers, but it was not clear if it was carrying drinking water or any other sustenance.
The man rescued at sea five days later was Yordanis Figueroa of Santiago, who is still aboard the freighter Yerimu. The ship is currently in the Grenadine Islands and is due in Miami Oct. 2. Officials of the Bernuth Agencies Inc., in Miami, which owns the ship, said Figueroa is in good physical condition. It is unclear what is his fate will be once he arrives here.
The other two men were identified as Elizardo Sanchez Garcia and Gilberto Rodriguez Creach, both of Guantanamo City. It is not known which one of the men might have made it to Haiti.
Another refugee at Guantanamo, Eutimio Guzman Marrero, said all three men were afraid they would soon be sent back to Cuba and feared they would suffer retribution there for escaping onto U.S. territory.
``Just a day or two before all this happened, they had met with American immigration officials and were told their cases would soon be resolved and that it was almost certain they would have to return to Cuba,'' said Guzman. ``That's what they told me, and I'm sure that is why they did this. They were desperate.''
Guzman said Sanchez and Rodriguez had both been in Guantanamo from October 1995 until April 25, when they were forced to return to Cuba. They later complained of being harassed by Cuban authorities for trying to escape the island and had both snuck back into Guantanamo this summer.
Figueroa had been at Guantanamo continuously for the past nine months, Guzman said.
``I don't think they had this planned ahead of time,'' he said. ``I know they didn't discuss it with me. If they had, I might have gone with them.''
Guzman said that since the escape, all the refugees still facing possible deportation back to Cuba have been kept confined in the camp jail grounds and are no longer allowed to participate in work details.
The hunger strikers were in the fourth day of their fast Tuesday.
``We are not protesting the living conditions,'' said Eddy Paez Mirabal, one of the strikers. ``We protest because we don't have an answer to our situation, and we want a solution now. They told us they would take us to a third country. After months we're still here.''
He said among the strikers was one man in very bad health.
Immigration and Naturalization authorities were negotiating with them.
``They are still taking water but no solid food,`` said Brian Jordan, a spokesman for INS in Washington, D.C. ``There's no violence and there's no upsetting factors. Things are going very calmly and very responsibly over there.
``This is going to be of short duration,'' he said. ``But immigration is a slow process, it takes time. They can't lose hope.''
Herald Staff Writer Armando Correa contributed to this report.
© 1996 The Miami Herald.