Violent Confrontation Off U.S. Coast
Things got rough at sea when a U.S. Coast Guard team tried to rein in a boat carrying illegal migrants, a video released Tuesday by the Coast Guard shows.
According to the Coast Guard, five separate groups of Cubans trying to enter the U.S. illegally were intercepted on May 24 and 25, comprising a total of 51 migrants.
All of the migrants were repatriated Tuesday.
One of the groups turned violent when it was intercepted by the Coast Guard cutters Matagorda and Nantucket on May 24, CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston reports, beginning a seven-hour game of cat and mouse approximately 45 miles south of Key West.
The desperate migrants hoped to avoid interception, knowing that they could stay in America if they made it to U.S. soil, but would be returned to Cuba if they were stopped.
A film of the incident, shot by the Coast Guard, shows the 12 angry migrants attacking the Coast Guard crew by throwing nuts, bolts, rocks and wrenches, and swinging poles, oars, and knives as their small craft maneuvered to elude capture. One migrant waved a machete.
The Coast Guard crew, traveling in a small rubber raft, repeatedly circled the 15- foot homemade vessel, trying to board it and subdue the passengers. They were repulsed several times.
As the Coast Guard team in the raft tried to ensnare the engine of the migrant boat, crew members on the Nantucket doused the intruder vessel with a high-pressure fire hose.
Finally, according to the Coast Guard, "the boarding officers used pepper spray to compel compliance with U.S. law and safely end the confrontation." Then the migrants were given life jackets and taken aboard the Nantucket.
Most of the 12 had made previous attempts to enter the U.S. illegally. One said it was his eighth try.
"The migrants are just more dedicated about getting to shore," said Lt. Commander Ronald LaBerec, a Coast Guard public affairs officer. "They've learned from their past attempts. That's why they brought the poles to defeat the entanglers, that's why they brought their ammunition with them."
The Coast Guard videotaped last Wednesday's encounter in part because of an incident last year in which the Coast Guard and law enforcement officers were criticized for using excessive force to prevent Cubans from coming ashore.
Under the U.S. immigration agreement with Cuba, refugees caught at sea are returned to Havana. Cubans can apply to immigrate, but the U.S. only approves 25,000 such applications a year, forcing others to take to the ocean for freedom.
The cutters Matagorda and Nantucket are part of the Seventh Coast Guard District fleet, which in 1999 intercepted 363 Haitians, 1,343 Cubans and 406 Dominicans trying to sail to the U.S.
Both ships are 110-foot, Island-class patrol boats. Powered by twin diesel engines, each has a range of 3,300 miles and is used fo law enforcement, search and rescue and defense operations. Each is armed with a 25-mm and two M-2.50 machine guns and carries a typical crew of 2 officers and 14 enlisted men.
While considered part of the U.S. military, the Coast Guard operates under the control of the Department of Transportation in peacetime.