A group of Cubans who tried to sail to the United States in a 1959 Buick car fashioned into a boat were intercepted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, relatives in Cuba and Cuban exiles said.
For four of the 11 people on board, it was not the first thwarted attempt to leave the communist island in a bizarrely converted vintage vehicle. They attempted to get to Florida on a ship made from a 1951 Chevy truck, only to be picked up by the Coast Guard and sent home.
The Coast Guard intercepted the bright green Buick-boat on Tuesday during its journey over the 90-mile stretch between Cuba and Florida, exile groups said. In Miami, the U.S. Coast Guard would not discuss the incident, saying agency policy was not to comment on migrant interdiction cases while they were in process.
There was no word on whether the group had been taken aboard a Coast Guard vessel or had tried to sail on once they were spotted by the Coast Guard. If picked up, they would likely be sent home, unless they could make a case for political asylum.
In Cuba, relatives of the six adults and five children — aged between 4 and 15 — on the Buick appealed to U.S. authorities not to send them home.
Usually, Cubans caught at sea are repatriated, unless they can prove they have grounds for political asylum. Washington’s policy is to monitor repatriated migrants to make sure they are not punished for having tried to leave.
Relatives said the group was led by Luis Grass, who was one of the 12 Cubans repatriated last July after the truck crossing attempt failed, and was seeking a visa for the United States as a political refugee.
Seaworthy Buick
Their vessel, seen on images broadcast by Miami television stations, looked like one of the many stately 1950s American cars that still cruise the streets of Havana and other Cuba cities — except that it was surrounded by ocean.
They sealed the doors and added a double bottom, steel plates for a bow and a propeller at his home in the Havana suburb of Diezmero. It cost $4,000 to make the Buick, powered by its original V8 engine, seaworthy and pay for cellular phones used to help the look-out for police on the drive to the beach.
