A Murder on the High Seas

Todd Bensman, Journalist	More Cubans arrive on the Brac last week as another migrant comes under suspicion of murder

Monday,  September 5, 2005

A Cuban migrant who stopped at Cayman Brac on his way to the US has found himself under suspicion of murdering another Cuban in his group during a long and, by all accounts, harrowing two month journey across the ocean. 

And according to one attorney in the US the alleged crime could fall under the jurisdiction of the Cayman Islands.

The story, as told in the San Antonio Express News, concerns a group of migrants who arrived on the Brac at the end of June, 2004, following a five day journey from Cuba. They then continued on, heading towards Cozumel in a vessel they purchased on Cayman Brac, allegedly from a senior Government official.

The boat left the shores of the Brac with seven souls on board, as reported in both Cayman’s print and radio media at the time. 

However, by the time it washed up on Mustang Island in Texas, there were only six, and US investigators have since worked to solve what US Coast Guard documents refer to as a “Murder on the High Seas.”

However, jurisdiction in this case is in dispute as much as the circumstances of the death of the migrant, and it has been suggested that this might fall under the Cayman Islands.

The San Antonio Express News quotes Houston maritime law attorney Michael Bell as saying that Cuba or even the Cayman Islands might have jurisdiction over a maritime case but “from the US standpoint, there’s not a lot of contacts with the incident that would give them claim to jurisdiction if it happened on the high seas.” 

The journalist who wrote the article, Todd Bensman, told Cayman Net News that his reporting is based on federal investigative reports, which were produced by the US Coast Guard Investigative Service, US Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI. 

The reports reflect many months of investigative work by agents he said and the investigations surround the disappearance of one of the Cubans between Cayman Brac and Texas, long after fuel, food and water had run out.

The arrival of the six Cubans on Mustang Island in August 2004 was first published in the Corpus Christi Caller Times. The question of a seventh person came up after a inquiry by this newspaper, following information supplied by a Cayman Islands journalist, that there were seven people on board the boat when it left Cayman Brac. 

However, a few weeks into an FBI investigation into the disappearance of the seventh individual on board, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported on 11 September, 2004, that the investigation had been closed. 

The FBI was unable to determine a seventh person existed, FBI spokesman Bob Doguim was quoted as saying.

“Even if it were determined, we need to determine if there was foul play and where on the high seas it occurred. It’s been nearly impossible and the US Attorney wouldn’t be able to prosecute it.” 

Orlando Requejo Pupo, the man now under suspicion of murder, also reported a seventh man in an interview with Diario La Estrella, a Spanish daily in Fort Worth. He said the man was named Luis and also was from Camaguey, the same province as the six other Cubans, the paper reported. 

However, the investigation appears to have continued, and the full story was pieced together by Mr Bensman, an investigative producer for the CBS-owned Dallas, Texas station, KTVT-11, and a freelance correspondent for Texas magazines and newspapers.

The missing person was Luis Estrada Sanchez, a 39-year-old husband and father who had served as the boat’s captain. 

Local Cayman media at the time, reported that one of this group, an older woman later identified as 55-year-old Atiliana “Magaly” Araujo Cruz, was rescued from their leaking boat after their five-day journey from Cuba and collapsed like a stone as she stepped foot on the shores of Cayman Brac at the Creek Barcadere.

According to witnesses on Cayman Brac the woman was not taken to hospital, but to the police station a few yards away, where she and one of her companions later received some medical treatment.

However, the next evening, on 1 July, the group of six left the Brac with one more on board, a 39-year-old refrigeration mechanic named Rolando Perez-Rivero, who had been detained in the Brac jail.

This man had arrived with an earlier group of Cuban migrants, but had jumped overboard as the boat was leaving the Brac. 

According to Mr Bensman’s account in the San Antonio Express News, eleven hours after they left the Brac, the engine ran its tank of gas dry and quit. By a tragic blunder with the GPS tracking that Sanchez had acquired on Cayman Brac, all of the coordinates to Cozumel were erased.

By July 3, all the fuel they were given on Cayman Brac was gone. The rest of their journey turned into a nightmare of fear, hunger, thirst and horrendous sea conditions, as the boat was battered first by Tropical Storm Bonnie and then by Hurricane Charley.

The travelers lived off raw fish, rain water and their own urine, after all food and fresh water ran out mid-July.

Tempers apparently frayed, especially between Sanchez and Pupo. While the woman seemed to have remained neutral, the men bickered and the situation appears to have become violent on several occasions according to official records.

Siding with Pupo was Zeidel Rivero Perez, 28, a cook by trade and the youngest on the boat. Some accounts by survivors say that the two of them murdered Sanchez.

In the various scuffles, Sanchez was supported by Aldo Mesa Diaz, 37, a mechanic and welder on his way to New Jersey, and Miguel Dias Cango, 36, a carpenter who had attempted two abortive escapes from Cuba. 

Dias told investigators that Pupo and Perez attacked Sanchez late one night, by throwing him overboard. 

“Everyone on board saw Orlando and Zeidel do this, and that they threw him an empty gas can to hold onto,” Dias is quoted as telling investigators. He promised to testify in court, under oath, that “Orlando and Zeidel threatened the others on board the boat not to say anything.” 
Requejo Pupo was arrested in Dallas, weeks after landing with the other five migrants last year. He remains in the Rolling Plains Detention Center near Haskell, without any formal criminal charges and long after the provisions of the Cuban Adjustment Act (the so-called wet-foot/dry-foot policy) should have required his release. 

Mr Bensman speculated that sensitivity to upsetting the politics of South Florida’s Cuban émigré population might explain why Perez is still free. He lives in Florida with relatives, and his arrest would certainly not go unnoticed, immigration attorneys said. 

At a hearing of the case in a Dallas immigration court, which was also covered by Mr Bensman for the San Antonio Express News, a federal immigration judge denied bond to Pupo. He will remain incarcerated at least until his request for political asylum is considered on 21 October. 

“I do not intend to put you on the streets of this nation,” Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers told Pupo after the evidence was presented. 

At the hearing, ICE Assistant District Counsel Saundra Arrington disclosed evidence that Pupo tried to persuade Ms Cruz to change her testimony. She also presented claims from another survivor that he threatened to kill anyone who told the truth about what happened to Sanchez. 

Among the problems that the US Government face with this case, according to the San Antonio Express News, is whether or not it has proper jurisdiction to bring a case when it remains unclear where the crime might have occurred.

Federal prosecutors in Corpus Christi have openly questioned whether they can proceed against Pupo, investigative records show. 

Meanwhile, Cayman policy in dealing with Cuban migrants has changed twice since this episode.

Before 19 July, 2004, this policy differed widely between the Islands, with Cubans landing on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, where Immigration falls under District Administration, generally allowed to continue their journey, while those reaching Grand Cayman generally detained and repatriated to Cuba.

After this date, policy on dealing with Cuban migrants on the Islands became more standardised, with “humanitarian assistance” given where possible for them to continue their journey. This did not include allowing them to continue in boats that were not of Cuban origin or to purchase engines.

In January 2005, after more than 300 migrants had passed through these shores the previous year, mostly through Cayman Brac, a new policy replaced these more lenient procedures, and currently all Cuban migrants are returned to Cuba if they accept any assistance.

Cubans are allowed to continue if they can do so without additional provisions and in the boat they arrived in. Since the new policy was put in place, the flood of migrants has become a trickle, but nevertheless continues.

The latest group passed through Cayman Brac early Wednesday 31 August. According to District Commissioner Kenny Ryan, a wooden boat with twelve males arrived at the Creek. They were advised of the current policy in place and continued on their way. All appearances were that the boat was in good condition as well as those on board, said Mr Ryan.

Cayman Net News witnessed them leaving around 9:00 am, heading towards Little Cayman, on their own desperate attempt for freedom from Cuba across a merciless ocean.

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