Group left Havana on wooden boat Wednesday, reach Miami a day later
By Julia Bagg and Brian Hamacher
Thursday, Nov 10, 2011
Julia Bagg/NBCMiami.com
Three Cuban refugees made it ashore and four others were missing after
their boat sank off Miami Beach Thursday morning, U.S. Coast Guard
officials said.
According to the Coast Guard, the three survivors -- 46-year-old Osmany
Cala, 44-year-old Leonel Caea, and 31-year-old Larizat Perez -- had left
Havana around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday with four others on a 15-20 foot
wooden boat with an outboard motor.
When the boat began to sink, the group split into two, clinging to
innertubes.
Cala, Caea and Perez arrived at the Tropical Food Market at 1025
Northeast 79th Street around 5:30 a.m., where owner Ruben Lopez gave
them food and towels to warm them up.
The four others, three men and one woman, were still missing late
Thursday morning and the Coast Guard had initiated a sea and air search
for them, officials said.
The three who made it were taken by U.S. Border Patrol for processing.
Lopez told an NBC Miami reporter in Spanish she'd come to the U.S.
because she "wanted a better life" and that "things were ugly in Cuba."
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