Amnesty International 

Report - AMR 25/13/97 
July 1997

Cuba
The Sinking of the "13 De Marzo" Tugboat on 13 July 1994

On 13 July 1994 at least 35 men, women and children were lost at sea when the vessel on which they and others were attempting to flee Cuba sank some seven miles out from Havana. The 31 survivors were eventually picked up by coast guards and taken to shore where the 20 male survivors were detained. Several of the survivors allege that their vessel sank after it had been pursued and assaulted by three other vessels, apparently acting under official instructions, and that those on board were given no opportunity to surrender. The Cuban Government denied any responsibility for the sinking of the tugboat or for the loss of life, alleging that it was an accident caused by the irresponsible actions of those on board. However, Amnesty International has received compelling evidence, including eyewitness testimony from several of the survivors, indicating that those on board the three pursuing vessels employed excessive force disproportionate to the actual situation and seemed to be taking orders from a fourth vessel. They allege that their pursuers deliberately rammed the “13 de Marzo” and undertook other aggressive actions which deliberately put at risk the lives of those on board, none of whom, from the information so far available, even from government sources, were armed or in a position to seriously resist capture. If this was the case, Amnesty International believes that those who perished in the incident were the victims of extrajudicial execution.

On 21 July 1994 Amnesty International called on the Cuban authorities to conduct a full and impartial investigation into the incident and to make the findings public, and that if the investigation revealed that any government official or agent acting on their behalf committed an offence, to bring them to justice and to give them a fair trial. It also called for the release of any survivors detained as a result of the incident unless they were charged with a recognized criminal offence and urged that no reprisals be taken against those who spoke out about what happened. Since then, despite calls to do so from human rights defenders inside Cuba and international human rights bodies, the Cuban authorities have not only failed to carry out an adequate investigation of the incident but have also continued to harass and intimidate those inside Cuba who have sought to peacefully protest the sinking of the “13 de Marzo” or commemorate the lives of those who died.

Context

It is important to describe the context in which the sinking of the “13 de Marzo” took place. In order to leave the country, either to emigrate or simply to travel and return to Cuba, Cuban citizens have to obtain an official exit permit. Those who seek permission to emigrate have to be in possession of a visa for another country and fulfill a series of other requirements, including the payment of certain fees. In practice, it is very difficult for most Cubans to meet such conditions. Many resort to trying to leave by illegal means, usually by sea, often floating on homemade rafts or inner tubes of tyres. Over the years many people have reportedly perished trying to make the 90-mile crossing to the United States over the Straits of Florida. Sometimes, even if those wishing to emigrate have fulfilled the necessary conditions, the authorities arbitrarily refuse to let them leave or give permission to some family members and not others. Being caught trying to leave illegally is punishable by imprisonment or a fine but if violence is employed, a more serious charge of “piracy” can be brought.

The desire to emigrate is in itself seen by the Cuban authorities as tantamount to a rejection of the Cuban political systemSee footnote 1 and those who seek to do so are often labelled as “counter-revolutionaries” or “traitors”. In the two or three years leading up to the sinking of the “13 de Marzo”, when economic conditions in Cuba had seriously deteriorated, there had been a significant increase in the number of Cubans attempting to leave Cuba by sea to try to reach the United States which had until that time had a policy of permitting those Cubans who reached its territory to remain in the USA. At the same time, despite having agreed in 1984 to accept up to 20,000 Cubans who sought to emigrate by legal means, the US authorities had in practice reduced the number of visas it granted to Cubans. The Cuban Government therefore claimed that, by withholding visas, the US authorities were encouraging Cubans to resort to illegal means to leave. They also accused them of inciting such action via radio and television broadcasts directed at Cuba by the US government- funded Radio and TV Martí. Given the traditional hostility that has existed between the Cuban and US Governments since the Cuban revolution in 1959 which brought President Fidel Castro Ruz to power, the argument over Cuban migration in effect became yet another political battleground between the two countries with those who were seeking to leave Cuba caught as pawns in the middle.

The sinking of the “13 de Marzo” increased the general level of discontent that clearly already existed in Havana at the time and sparked off further escape attempts as well as anti-government protests. In the days that followed, the Cuban authorities apparently took a conscious decision to cease preventing illegal departures and the numbers of people trying to leave Cuba illegally by sea soared. In some instances, large groups of people tried to hi-jack public ferries and other vessels, in some cases by violent means. On 19 August 1994, in response to the exodus that ensued, the US Government ordered the US Coast Guard to prevent undocumented Cubans from reaching US territorial waters. As a result, between 19 August and mid-September 1994, some 32,000 Cubans were intercepted by the US Coast Guard and taken to the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, CubaSee footnote 2. On 9 September 1994, the two governments announced that they had come to an agreement on how to deal with migration issues for the future. As part of the agreement, the Cuban authorities said it would take “effective measures in every way it can to prevent unsafe departures, using mainly persuasive methods”. For further information, see “United States/Cuba: “Rafters” - Pawns of Two Governments”, AMR 51/86/94, October 1994.

It is important to note that the escape attempt by those on board the “13 de Marzo” took place at a point when the Cuban authorities were actively seeking to deter and prevent such illegal departures. It is also relevant to point out that it is not the first time, either before or since, that Amnesty International has received reports of apparently excessive force being used by the Cuban authorities to prevent illegal departures by sea where the lives of unarmed civilians, often women and children, appear to have been put at risk.

Accounts by survivors

[Victims: Estrella Suárez Esquivel, Miralis Fernández Rodríguez and 12-year-old Eliecer Suárez García ]

According to an account compiled by an unofficial Cuban human rights group on the basis of interviews carried out with some of the survivors on the day after the sinking of the “13 de Marzo” took place, events took place as follows:

"The boat left [the port of Havana] at about 3.00am. About 45 minutes later, having advanced nearly seven miles out to sea, they were intercepted by another Japanese-made tugboat which started to ram them in order to make them capsize. Another tugboat soon appeared and, taking over from the first one, continued doing the same thing. All [the passengers] were trapped between these two boats, which then began to direct water at them with high-pressure hoses.The force of this tore the clothes off the women, knocked them down, and forced the children out of their arms.

"The mothers screamed and implored the attackers to stop directing the water hoses at them because they might cause the young ones to drown. The perpetrators continued using the hoses against the citizens, including the children, trying to drown them by suffocation. Many of the men, women and children on board were injured by the pressure of the water which threw them against the bulwarks of the boat. Seconds later, a third tugboat appeared and attacked forcefully from behind, splitting the boat in two since it was an old Second World war boat which had been repaired and was called “13 de Marzo”.

"All those on board were submerged in the water including those who had taken refuge in the engine room where they were trying to hang on to poles, ropes and whatever they could find. After nearly an hour of battling in the open sea, the other boats circled round the survivors, creating a whirlpool so that they would drown. As a result many disappeared into the sea and lost their lives."

[Victims: Julia Caridad Ruiz with three-year-old son, Angel René Abreu ]

The following are extracts from the testimony of survivor Janette Hernández Gutiérrez, now living in the USA, which was provided to an unofficial human rights group in Cuba in the days immediately after the incident occurred:

    "As we were leaving the bay, we saw two tugboats at the mouth of the bay. As we left, they also left and started directing jets of water at us. Constantly. They would not stop, even though they knew there were children on board... the pressurized water jets were really powerful. We were holding the children, afraid that they would fall. The men were standing behind us, afraid that we would fall. But so that they would see that there were women and children on board, we had to go out on deck, so that they would be certain of that and would not commit murder ... At no time did they shoot at us neither did they at any time order us to halt with the loudspeaker. They simply let us leave the bay and attacked us seven miles out where there are no witnesses... They sent one of the tugboats, the biggest one, which was green with a red line along it, behind us and it hit us from the stern and broke our boat in half ... When that happened the boat started to drift because the captain... was forced into the sea from the pressure of the water jets.... he disappeared just like that and when Raúl saw that we were drifting, he assumed responsibility and ran upstairs..... By then we knew we were going to sink, it was something I just knew, I had a feeling they were going to kill us because otherwise they would have stopped . Raúl stopped the engine... and when they saw that Raúl had stopped it, they did not forgive that or respect what Raúl did. They sank us in the following way: the tugboat which had split our stern went ahead and split us from the prow. That meant there was no way to keep the tugboat afloat, it was sinking, because the weight was all in the middle... But they did not throw us lifebelts or try to help us in any way... Then a "griffin" [coastguard vessel] arrived, it was the only one which helped us by throwing us lifebelts but the tugboats stood by doing nothing, they did not help at all. Later a small speedboat arrived and picked up about seven people..."

[Victims: Omar Rodríguez Suárez with two-year-old daughter Sixdy Rodríguez Fernández ]

Amnesty International has received similar accounts from interviews it has carried out with other survivors who were eventually able to leave Cuba during the August 1994 exodus (see above). In September 1994, an Amnesty International delegation visited the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, CubaSee footnote 3, where thousands of Cubans were in detention after being picked up by the US Coast Guard while trying to reach the USA by sea. One of the men interviewed by the delegation was one of about five people in the camps said to be among the 31 survivors of the sinking of the "13 de Marzo" and who had subsequently again tried to flee from Cuba. According to his account of events on 13 July 1994, the “13 de Marzo” had already been detected by the authorities as it was leaving the port of Havana and three vessels, all also tugboats, started to pursue it straightaway. However, they were able to continue into open sea. The first pursuing vessel began to direct jets of water at them. Then two of the pursuing tugboats deliberately rammed the “13 de Marzo” while the third, despite their protestations that there were women and children on board, continued to persistently direct jets of water into the hold. Once the “13 de Marzo” started sinking, the other three boats backed off but did not immediately attempt to rescue those on board. He himself was by this time in the water. At a certain point he got the impression that orders were given to pick them up. He was picked up by what he described as the "least aggressive" of the three vessels. He said that those on board the three attacking vessels were dressed in civilian clothes but he did not believe, as the Cuban authorities alleged, that they were ordinary dockworkers, especially as several of the crew of one boat appeared to be suffering from seasickness. He was arrested, along with the other male survivors, and held at Villa Marista for 13 days before being released into house arrest. At the time he left Cuba, another detainee, Raúl Muñoz García, was still in detention accused of being in charge of the tugboat and organizer of the escape attempt. However, he said that in fact Raúl Muñoz was only second-in-command and that the man in chargeSee footnote 4 had drowned. Raúl Muñoz was reportedly released into house arrest after eight months in detention but is said to have been subjected to police surveillance and harassment ever since.

[Victim: eleven-year-old Yousel Pérez Tacaronte ]

Another survivor interviewed by Amnesty International in the USA in May 1996, Sergio Perodin Pérez, said that their departure was detected by the port authorities as they were leaving the port and that passers by on shore had also noticed what was happening. However, the “13 de Marzo” was allowed to continue on its way for about seven miles. He pointed out that one of the effects of everything inside the tugboat being drenched with water from the pressurized water jets was that their communications equipment no longer worked and they were unable to call for help. In fact, he believes, from information that he and other survivors were able to obtain from various sources, including people working in the Port of Havana, after the incident took place, that the authorities had found out about the escape attempt some time beforehand and were lying in wait for them. At no point did the pursuing vessels warn those on board what they were going to do or give them any opportunity to give themselves up. When a foreign cargo boat came within some 800 metres of where the “13 de Marzo” was sinking, the vessels which were attacking it temporarily suspended their activities. After he and some 40 other people had been forced into the water, the three attacking tugboats surrounded them, causing a whirlpool. At one point, he said he heard one of the occupants of the attacking vessels say, “Let's see what you are going to do now, you sons of whores”. A coastguard vessel which had followed the “13 de Marzo” and the other three tugboats out of the port, and which appeared to be directing operations by radio, eventually picked him and others up. However, rather than taking them straight to shore for medical attention, the boat continued sailing around for some six hours until it was given the order to go to Jaimanitas on the western outskirts of Havana, where they were received by 50-60 Interior Ministry officials. The survivors, who were brought to land on two or three different vessels, were desperate to know what had happened to the others who were on board the “13 de Marzo”. When they asked the authorities who else had survived, they were simply told that if they could not see them, then the sharks had eaten them. The women and children were allowed to go home later that day but the men were handcuffed and questioned until evening when they were transferred to the State Security headquarters at Villa Marista in Havana. For the first two days, they were not allowed to sleep much and had to sleep on the floor but once the women survivors started speaking out about what had happened, their treatment improved. He said that the authorities tried by various means to persuade them to change their story. In his case, a psychologist was brought in to work with him. Another of the survivors was reportedly offered a job working with State Security outside of Cuba which he refused to do.

Among the 20 male survivors arrested were: Raúl Muñoz García, Sergio Perodin Pérez, Modesto Almanza Romero, Daniel González Hernández, Juan Gustavo Martínez Gutiérrez, José Fabian Valdés, Arquimides Ledreijo Gamboa, Román Lugo Martínez, Fidel González, Eugenio Fuentes Díaz, Ivan Prieto Suárez, Daniel Prieto Suárez and Jorge Luis Cuba Suárez. They were reportedly detained at Villa Marista, with no access to lawyers. All except Raúl Muñoz García, who was detained for eight months (see above), were held for approximately one month before being released into house arrest. It is not clear whether any formal charges were brought against any of them. One female survivor, María Victoria García Suárez, who lost thirteen relatives in the tragedy and who the day afterwards made statements to foreign journalists contradicting the official version, was twice taken into custody for questioning in the days immediately following the incident. She is said to have been severely traumatized by what happened and to have spent some time in the Havana Psychiatric Hospital. She and other survivors who have remained in Cuba have reportedly been kept under police surveillance and been subjected to limitations on their freedom of movement. All have been repeatedly warned not to speak out about what happened to them.

 The vessels which attacked the “13 de Marzo” were reportedly identified as belonging to the Ministry of Transport and are called “Polargo 2", “Polargo 3" and “Polargo 5". According to survivors, “Polargo 5" was the vessel which acted most aggressively towards them. The fourth vessel which followed along behind them and which appeared to be directing operations was believed to belong to the Cuban Coast Guard, which is part of the Ministry of the Interior.

The victims

Estimates of the number of victims have varied. Most survivors concur that there were some 70-72 people on board the tugboat when it departed. According to the Cuban Government, 32 people drowned and 31 were rescued. However, an investigation carried out by an independent human rights group inside Cuba found that at least 37 people were missing. So far Amnesty International has received the names of 35 people who were lost at sea. Most came from four areas of Havana - Cotorro, Guanabacoa, Marianao and Arroyo Naranjo. Many were members of the same family.

         NAMES OF THOSE WHO DIED