Cuban refugees land in Manatee County

While a U.S. congressional committee was busy being wined and dined by the party elite in Havana, more than two dozen Cubans were on a perilous voyage to freedom.  They made dry land after three hard days at sea amid constant vomiting, without food, and without bathrooms.

Excerpted from the Sun-Herald:

Before Friday's journey began, Rodriguez rolled cigars in Cuba, earning eight Cuban pesos a day. It cost him 50,000 of his country's currency to get smuggled into the United States. He had a phone number and address written on his hand, the only contact information he has for his sister who lives in Miami. But the phone number wasn't working Monday night, so he waited in the parking lot with others who said they could get him a ride to Miami. From there, without money and without knowing English, he hopes to track down his sister.

"If God is willing, one day I will bring my wife and children here," he said. Nearby sat Ysumi Carilla Gomez, a tan-skinned, curly-haired woman holding a few papers in her hand. Rodriguez could ride with her, she said, when her brother arrived from Miami to pick her up to live with her 14-year-old son, who fled Cuba in a boat two years ago.

"We are very united as Cubans," Gomez said. "And humane. We help each other out."

Yoniel Estevez, 24, was the first refugee of the 26 to be released.

"I'm here to study, have a better life. It was worth it," Estevez said. "Here you are free, that doesn't exist in Cuba. Everything castro says is a lie."

Thank God they made it safely, so many others have not.  The Florida Strait is a watery grave for uncounted tens of thousands of Cubans, and so many more have been intercepted and sent back to castros island hell.  The inhumane wet foot dry foot policy continues through President Bush's second term,  contrary to promises made.