By ELAINE DE VALLE
Herald Staff Writer

The clouds above grew dark and heavy, like the spirits of more than 300 people who assembled at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity on Tuesday night.

They gathered to say a prayer for those who died five years ago, when the Cuban government sank a tugboat named the 13 de marzo in Havana Harbor.

Mourners were greeted by the photocopied faces of children. They were among the 41 victims who drowned when Cuban patrol boats rammed the tugboat and blasted it with water, swamping it and throwing people overboard, on July 13, 1994.

``It is a very sad day for me, but every day is sad,'' said Sergio Perodin, 43, who survived the incident, but lost his wife, Pilar, and 11-year-old son Yaser.

Some of the other survivors sat with him in a pew not far from the Virgin of Charity, Cuba's patron saint.

``This is very important to us, to see the solidarity of the exile,'' he said. ``In Cuba, there are no Masses for the victims. The families ask the priests to have services, but it's not official. They are restricted.''

For Miami Cubans, it was just as important to be there.

``This is one of the biggest crimes of Castro's tyranny. We cannot let it slip into oblivion,'' said Georgina Chirino, 64. ``We have to let the world know.''

``It is my duty to share their grief,'' said Chuny Montaner, a director of the Cuban Dissidents Task Group who goes to the memorial service each year. ``It is our  pain, it belongs to all of us.''

Montaner and several others believe that July 13 should be commemorated nationally in a future free Cuba.

Alberto Martinez Echenique, who had to stand outside and listen to the homily through a crack in the glass doors in front, said it was also just as important to send a message back to those still in Cuba: You are not alone.

``This is our response to the people in Cuba, who have begun to revolt against the dictatorship,'' said the president of the Independent Cuban Party in exile.

``Remember, the liberty of Cuba has to come from inside, not outside. We just have to support it however we can.