Patrol's conduct investigated

By ELAINE DE VALLE, ANA ACLE, and
MANNY GARCIA
Herald Staff Writers

The six Cuban rafters whose arrival in Surfside captured public attention this week said
Thursday that U.S. Border Patrol agents mocked their odyssey to freedom, verbally
abused them, threatened them with deportation, and forced them to pose for a snapshot
while holding a picture of Fidel Castro.

''I still can't sleep thinking of that photo they took of us with Fidel,'' said Juan de Dios
Mirabal, 30, his eyes watering.

''I never thought that the American patrolmen would treat us that way,'' said his brother,
Carlos Mirabal, 36.

The tale, if true, would be a double-barreled embarrassment for federal authorities, who
are already reeling from reaction to the Coast Guard's televised blasting of the rafters
Tuesday with a fire hose and pepper spray as they tried to make it to Surfside beach.

Border Patrol spokesman Keith Roberts said the agency is conducting an
investigation into the allegations.

''When we have allegations of this type, we have policy in place,'' Roberts said.
''We go by the book. If there was something, an infraction of this type, we neither
condone it nor tolerate it. It's unprofessional.''

The men informed Immigration and Naturalization Service administrators at Krome
and Miami Mayor Joe Carollo of the allegations on Wednesday, shortly before
they were released. The Border Patrol has not yet asked the men for formal
statements.

Border Patrol officers questioned the rafters because they doubted anyone could
make it across the Florida Straits in a skiff.

Leaders call for probe

Cuban-American leaders, who learned of the allegations over the last 24 hours,
called for a thorough investigation. If the rafters' story is true, the agents' behavior
was outrageous, they said.

''I think this needs to be fully investigated,'' Carollo said. ''It is outrageous that
people seeking freedom be subjected to this type of abuse.'' Carollo said Krome
administrators learned of the incident from the rafters after they arrived at the
detention center. The rafters also told Carollo, but everyone decided to keep quiet.

''It could have been a very explosive situation if word leaked out before the rafters
were released.'' Carollo said he also wanted to keep quiet to make sure that the
rafters were freed.

The rafters -- in separate interviews with The Herald less than a day after being
released from the Krome detention center -- gave similar accounts of their
encounter early Wednesday with Border Patrol officers.

Later that day, the Immigration & Naturalization Service released the Mirabal
brothers; Israel Ramos Consuegra, 18; Carlos Hernandez Cordoba, 29; Luis
Chantel Biennes Cunill, 22; and Duviel Rodriguez del Rio, 17.

Media circus

The six were stopped by the Coast Guard Tuesday afternoon, just a golf swing
from the beach. With television helicopters filming overhead and photographers
along the beach, Consuegra and Cordoba swam to shore and were handcuffed by
Surfside patrol officers. The other four surrendered at sea to the Coast Guard.

Consuegra and Cordoba said the Surfside officers apologized for handcuffing
them. ''They gave us clothes,'' Consuegra said. ''The officers gave me a bar of
soap to take a shower. They gave us sandwiches. They treated us like humans.''

Consuegra said Border Patrol officers transported them to a station, but he did
not know where it was located. Authorities on Tuesday said the men were taken
to the Border Patrol office in Pembroke Pines.

Consuegra said things went downhill from there.

''The officers were questioning us, saying you could not have made it in your little
boat,'' Consuegra recalled. ''You were smuggled here.''

The six men say they sailed a skiff from Cuba, but the Border Patrol suspects
they were smuggled on a larger boat that dropped them off near shore.

Several rafters said an officer began picking on Cordoba, who sports tattoos and
an earring.

Consuegra said the officer ''looked American. He was bald with a cap.'' Cordoba
gave this description of the officer: He was armed, tall, blond, green-eyed,
American, wore jeans and a striped shirt and spoke Spanish.

Insults alleged

He said the officer called him an offensive Spanish term for ''wimp,'' then said,
''Why did you come to the United States? This is my country, not yours,''
Cordoba quoted the officer.

''They offended him for no reason,'' said Biennes, who is Cordoba's brother-in-law.
''They told him he was a pato [Cuban slang for homosexual]. Because he wears
an earring, they asked him, 'What is that earring for? Are you a pajaro [Cuban
slang for homosexual] or what?'''

He said the officer tried to coax him to sign a sheet of paper that he could not
read.

''What you have to do is return to Cuba,'' the agent said. ''Place a check right
here. So we can deport you to Cuba.''

Cordoba said he refused to get into an argument with the officer, fearing he was
setting him up to get deported.

''I'm not stupid,'' Cordoba said. ''I wasn't going to fall in that trap.''

Consuegra described the encounter as part-interview, part-mind-games. ''They
were clearly trying to trick us into saying we were smuggled, but that is not the
case.''

Consuegra and Cordoba said all six were later reunited in a main room, where
they were fingerprinted.

Scared of deportation

The rafters said they became worried at that point. Consuegra and Cordoba said
another agent -- a short, dark-skinned man, in a green uniform -- spoke to them in
Spanish.

Del Rio said another officer, the tall, blond man, told him that they were
worthless. ''The only one who's worth anything is The Horse,'' the guard said,
pointing to the picture of Castro. The Horse is Castro's nickname.

The rafters said the first officer grabbed a newspaper photo of Castro, which had
been taped to a window.

The rafters said the agent ordered five of them to stand close together. They said
the officer ordered del Rio, the youngest rafter, to stand in front of the group and
hold the Castro picture.

''First they took our pictures one by one. But then they wanted a photo of the six
together,'' Biennes said. ''And they put us there, line us all up, and they give the
16-year-old a photo of Fidel and told him to stand in the front.''

Biennes said an officer first wrote ''Viva Fidel'' on the bottom of the photo.

Questionable photo

''A million things were going through my mind. I didn't know the laws of this
country but I didn't think this was allowed,'' Biennes said. ''I was so scared when
they gave the picture to the kid. I was thinking, 'Now what? What is all this
about?' ''

Said Consuegra: ''The agent took a picture with this camera where the picture
came out from the bottom. They started to laugh like it was a joke.''

The rafters said the agents took the Polaroid, slid it into an envelope and
threatened to mail to it to Cuba.

''We're going to mail it to Fidel,'' Consuegra quoted the officer.

Consuegra said they were placed in a room and the door closed. He said the
agents taped the photograph against the door -- facing them -- and left.

''So we could stare at Castro,'' Consuegra said.

Both the rafters and another detainee started telling INS officials about the photo
when they got to Krome.

The group also saw the man who took the picture -- and who also drove the
vehicle that took them to the detention center -- at Krome before they were
released, Biennes said.

''We saw him through the glass. We said to ourselves, 'Look! There is the guy
that took that photo.' But we didn't want to say anything. We didn't want to
jeopardize our case.''

Also contributing to this story were Herald staff writers Susana Bellido, Yves
Colon and Joe Tanfani.