Published Tuesday, September 24, 1996, in the Miami Herald.

             Total of 35 land in Keys, on beach

             By CONNIE PILOTO
             Herald Staff Writer

             KEY WEST -- Three groups of Cuban refugees arrived on South
             Florida shores Monday, including 20 who apparently were
             smuggled from Cuba in a fishing boat and dropped off at a
             Stock Island marina.

             ``They told us they came in a fishing boat from Cuba and were
             left at the marina,'' said Lemar Wooley, spokesman for the
             Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami. ``We don't
             know much more about who brought them here.''

             A group of 10 others -- including two who had tried more than
             20 times to make the crossing -- arrived in Miami Beach.

             And five Cuban men were found on State Road 905 in North Key
             Largo about 5 p.m. They told Monroe County deputies that they
             had come on a boat, but the Marine Patrol couldn't find it by
             nightfall.

             Late Monday, anti-smuggling investigators from the Border
             Patrol were sent to interview the group in Key West. The
             refugees will likely be sent to the Krome Detention Center in
             Dade County.

             Refugee smuggling has been under intense federal scrutiny in
             recent years. In August, two people from a group of about 25
             drowned when a smuggler's boat capsized off Marathon.

             In January, a woman died from the pounding she took from the
             waves as a smuggler's vessel raced across the Straits of
             Florida. The two smugglers in that case got 16 months for
             involuntary manslaughter.

             The refugees in Monday's case in Key West -- 11 women, three
             children and six men -- spent their first day in the United
             States resting on tables in a large, locked room at the Key
             West International Airport. Most wore blue uniforms from the
             Monroe County Jail.

             The Cuban women, most in their early to late 20s, huddled
             together as they paged through a magazine. The men looked out
             a window, and the children -- wearing bathing suits --
             frolicked while sucking on lollipops. One woman had a swollen
             leg and was keeping it iced, but the rest of the group
             appeared healthy, authorities said.

             ``I wanted to take them to the transit center so we could
             reach their relatives, but they aren't being released,'' said
             Arturo Cobo, coordinator of the Refugee Transit Center on
             Stock Island. ``We're doing everything we can to get them
             whatever they need.''

             In the morning, Cobo delivered trays filled with Cuban coffee,
             milk and toast. He returned midday with rice, black beans,
             meat and baby food. By late afternoon, INS officials asked
             whether he could deliver diapers, underwear and blankets.

             Just after midnight

             The refugees -- from Havana, Guanabacoa and Regla -- arrived
             at a dock at Peninsular Marine in Stock Island about 12:30
             a.m. Monday, deputies said.

             They found no one at the marina, so they walked about a block
             to a security booth at Oceanside Marina, where they found a
             guard and told him that they had just arrived from Cuba,
             Oceanside manager Roger Greene said. The guard called the
             sheriff's office.

             Deputies loaded some refugees into the back seats of several
             police cars -- the rest rode in the back of the guard's pickup
             truck -- and took them to the airport, where they were left in
             the custody of INS officials, said deputy Becky Herrin,
             sheriff's spokeswoman.

             Shortly after daybreak, a group of 10 refugees came ashore
             behind the Days Inn, 4299 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

             They came on the Julia, a 19-foot wood boat powered by an
             oil-spitting Russian engine, from a central Cuban port town.
             They leaped off the vessel, knelt on the sand and seaweed and
             made the sign of the cross.

             ``Look at this place,'' said Pedro Melian Alvarez, 30,
             pointing at a yellow Art Deco building. ``Miami! Miami!''

             Twenty-three tries

             Also aboard were Roberto Gonzalez, 30, and Doris Uz Duque, 22,
             who said it was their 23rd attempt to flee communist Cuba.

             Miami Beach police identified the others as Yanett Rodriguez,
             18; Alfredo Arramendi, 40; Ricardo Valdez, 22; and Enrique
             Lopez, 25, and his wife, Levis, 18.

             The Cubans were greeted ashore just after 8 a.m. by curious
             tourists, beach residents, joggers and their dogs. Several
             passersby offered them Marlboro Lights and towels or pulled
             out cellular phones so the newly arrived refugees could call
             their families in Miami -- many of whom showed up before
             police and the Border Patrol.

             ``We made it,'' Uz told her older brother Silvio, 29, of
             Miami, as they hugged on the shoreline for the first time in
             nearly two years. ``No more Cuba. . . . We have a future.''

             U.S. Border Patrol officers took the Cubans to Krome, where
             they would be screened for political asylum. Last year,
             federal policy changed concerning Cubans fleeing by sea. Those
             caught by the Coast Guard are routinely repatriated unless
             they prove a ``credible'' fear of returning.

             Some who have made it to U.S. shores have been released after
             the Immigration and Naturalization Service examined their
             cases.

         Herald staff writers Manny Garcia and Nancy Klingener
             contributed to this report.