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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
Cuba Seeks Lower Sentences for Mexican Fishermen
 Reuters
| | Julio Garcia, 43, originally from Cuba, kisses the U.S. flag after being sworn in as a U.S. citizen Thursday, April 13, 2006 in Miami Beach, Fla. Approximately 3,000 new citizens took the oath. (AP/Alan Diaz) |
Havana - Cuban prosecutors lowered from 25 to 10 years jail terms they are seeking for three Mexican fishermen charged with smuggling people out of Cuba, Mexico's ambassador in Havana said on Thursday.
Relatives of one of the men said they hoped the trio would be absolved after attending their one-day trial on Wednesday in the southern coast city of Cienfuegos. A decision could take up to a month.
Mexican Ambassador Jose Ignacio Pina said defense lawyers refuted evidence that the fishermen were planning to pick up 17 people on Cuba's south coast.
Cuba's Communist authorities are cracking down on the increasing number of smugglers ferrying Cuban migrants to Mexico, where they try to cross into the United States.
On April 5, the Cuban coast guard shot at three suspected migrant smugglers, killing one and wounding a second, as they approached the southwestern coast of the island.
The two surviving smugglers were arrested. Cuban officials said they were Cuban-Americans operating a 40-foot (12-meter) Miami-registered speedboat from the Mexican resort of Cancun.
Cuba last week denounced the existence of a smuggling ring financed by anti-Castro exiles in Miami that was landing Cubans in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula purportedly in collusion with local immigration officials.
The three Mexican fishermen, who were arrested a year ago, insisted in court they were on a fishing trip when their boat broke down and they entered Cuban waters to fix the engine.
"The boat had room for five people and was carrying four tons of ice and 600 fishhooks. Where could you fit so many people?" Maria Elena Barco, sister of one of the men, told reporters at the Mexican Embassy in Havana.
"There was no proof," said mother Lucia Rivero de Barco. |
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