By ADRIAN SAINZ
Associated Press

MIAMI -- Relatives of 11 Cubans found at sea in a vintage car converted into a boat awaited word on their fate Thursday, as
Cuban-American leaders urged the U.S. government not to send the group back to their homeland.

While the U.S. Coast Guard won't comment on ongoing interdictions, Cuban exile activists say the group found Tuesday on a seagoing 1950s-era Buick were still
being held at sea until a decision was made on whether to send them home.

The group, discovered 10 miles from Marathon in the Florida Keys, faces a likely return to Cuba under U.S. immigration policy.

After the Cubans were found, the Coast Guard sank the vessel, said Alex Cruz, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The Republican congresswoman,
a Cuban exile, requested on Wednesday that the vessel be saved as a piece of history.

The Coast Guard, which used machine gun fire to sink another vehicle-powered barge that tried to reach U.S. shores in July, refused Thursday to confirm the status
of the tail-finned Buick.

Pilar Rodriguez, mother of Luis Grass Rodriguez, who helped transform the car into a boat, told The Associated Press she hoped the U.S. government will allow
him to enter the country. She said her son has a U.S.-issued visa to enter legally but hasn't been allowed to leave Cuba by conventional means.

``All we can do is wait and hope,'' said Rodriguez, who arrived in Miami from Cuba last month on a tourist visa and plans to return in May. ``He doesn't like the
political system there.''

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said his group had appealed to the U.S. State Department ``in hopes they would give
some humanitarian consideration'' to the group, which includes five children.

The attempt was ``a product of incredible ingenuity that is embarrassing to the regime,'' Garcia said Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, has also asked the State Department to allow Grass, his wife and son to enter the United States.

A State Department official declined comment Thursday.

Grass and another man on the boat, Marciel Basanta Lopez, were identified by as having already failed in a previous effort to reach the United States in a similar
vessel.

Basanta and Grass were sent back to Cuba in July after they failed to reach Florida in a 1951 Chevy pickup converted into a pontoon boat. They were joined by 10
other people on that trip.

The Chevy pickup they used in July was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft pushed it
along at about 8 mph. After the Coast Guard intercepted them about 40 miles off Key West, the pickup was sunk to keep it from becoming a hazard to other
vessels.

The transformed vehicles are known in Cuba and Miami as ``bing-bangs'' Cubans typically built them inside homes under the cover of night to avoid detection, and
their name is derived from the sound coming from inside the homes where the work is being done. Those who build and pilot the crafts are referred to as
``truckonauts.''

``It reflects the desire of people to abandon a homeland where they have no future and no hope,'' said Yanisset Rivero, executive director of the Cuban Democratic
Directorate, a Miami-based exile group.

Under U.S. immigration policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores generally are allowed to stay while those caught at sea are usually returned. Immigration officials
interview Cubans intercepted at sea to determine if they have a credible fear of persecution at home, but most are still returned.

Cuban-Americans, including several congressional members, have criticized the so-called ``wet foot, dry foot'' policy and asked the White House revise it. President
Bush said in October that the United States would focus on promoting ``the many routes to safe and legal entry'' to America.

On Thursday, the apparent repatriation of the group drew feelings of compassion and resignation from some Miami residents.

Margarita Pinto, an eyeglass store owner, called the situation ``painful.''

``They put so much effort into it,'' said Pinto, of Colombia. ``It's completely unfair.''

Trucker Jorge Lopez, 64, came from Cuba in 1974 and said he sympathizes with Grass and his companions.

``It seems to me they deserve to stay in this country, but as they say in English, `It's the law,''' Lopez said in Spanish.

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