This Saturday, at the Ermita de la Caridad in Miami, Cubans commemorated the 30th anniversary of the barbaric act
14ymedio, Jose Antonio Garcia Molina, Miami, 14 July 2024 — A dozen white crosses with images of children’s faces commemorated the children who died in the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat. The commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, at the entrance to the Ermita de la Caridad in Miami on Saturday, has brought together a Cuban exile community that continues to demand justice for the 37 victims of that massacre.
The church, a meeting place for a community that has been nourished by successive waves of migrants from the island, was attended by everyone from the elderly, who remember how they lived through that day of mourning for Cuban families, to children and adolescents who have grown up hearing the story in the voices of their parents and grandparents. The Cuban and American flags flanked the entrance.
Among those who arrived at the Hermitage was Iván Prieto, whose life was marked by tragedy. This Havana native, currently 57 years old, was among the 68 people who were aboard the tugboat 13 de Marzo that set sail from the port of Havana bound for the United States on 13 July 1994. Even when he closes his eyes, he remembers the confusion, the screams, and the fact that when he fell into the water he couldn’t even see his own hands.
“I managed to survive but many others died there, falling into the water, because they did not rescue us.”
As soon as they left the coast, the port authorities sent other tugboats after the migrants, including the Polargo 5, which led the attack by spraying jets of water onto the deck of the 13 de Marzo and also ramming it until it sank. In that act of barbarity, Prieto lost 14 members of his family, including his father. “It was terrible,” he now tells 14ymedio.
“They sank us with jets of water and blows,” he recalls. “I managed to survive, but many others died there, falling into the water, because they didn’t rescue us.” A few meters from where Prieto recalls his story, a poster with images of the victims asks “Justice for our dead!” and another billboard asks “Castro, do you know these children?” next to the image of the children who lost their lives that morning.
La Ermita fills up as the morning progresses. Some arrive dressed in yellow clothes in homage to the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba’s patron saint; others light a candle, and most remain looking at the image that presides over the church, while they pray. Some of them, who lived on the island in that month of July three decades ago, only found out about what happened years later or through street rumors.
Fidel Castro’s regime threw a veil of silence over what happened and only when the survivors began to speak could they reconstruct the minutes of anguish and terror that were experienced a short distance from the Havana coast. Iván Prieto was rescued by a Cuban gunboat almost an hour after he fell into the water; the tugboats involved in the sinking did nothing to save the migrants.
Although for decades Cuban official spokespeople have denied any involvement of the regime’s leadership in what happened, the results of an investigation into the actions of the crew of the Polargo 5 and the other tugboats involved in the sinking have not been made public. Nor has there been any news of any penalties or punishment against them for their actions – quite the opposite.
“There were 17 of us relatives and only three of us survived,” Prieto told this newspaper. Those who managed to survive were locked up in Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana, for almost a month. “I was never able to have a normal life after that, they checked on me all the time.” Although he notes that every July 13 is “a very sad day” for him and his family, he is grateful for the tributes to the victims that are held every year and especially the one on Saturday.
Prieto not only lost a good part of his family in the massacre, but after leaving the island at the beginning of this century, he has not been able to return to the country where he was born. In 2018, the migrant reported that immigration agents detained him upon his arrival in Cuba at the José Martí International Airport and returned him to the United States. As long as the current regime remains in place, his chances of participating in a tribute in Havana similar to the one this Saturday in Miami are nil.
Among those who arrived at the Hermitage on July 13 were figures from the Cuban political exile. “This is one of the most atrocious crimes that a State can commit,” Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, told this newspaper. In addition to the 37 fatalities, 27 adults and ten children, the sinking of the Marzo de 13 tugboat left “a tremendous amount of psychological and all kinds of after-effects among the relatives and survivors.”
Several of the attendees also remembered Jorge García’s daughter, María Victoria García, who died earlier this year and who lost her ten-year-old son that morning when he drowned after falling into the water. The tribute this Saturday emphasized the work of raising awareness and the importance of the testimony given by father and daughter to learn the details of an event that Cuban official propaganda tried to bury.
“I was never able to have a normal life after that, they checked on me all the time.” Although she emphasizes that every July 13 is “a very sad day.”
Among the most emotional words spoken outside the Hermitage were those of Jorge Félix García, also Jorge García’s son, but who was not on board the tugboat. He said: “30 years ago, pain knocked on the doors of our homes and the hearts of all Cubans.” The migrant believes that “there were more than 37 victims because all of us who are here were touched by a totally arbitrary decision of a tyranny.”
“The last thing I remember from that night was seeing my brother [Joel Garcia] come out of the house, turn to us, open his arms and say ’I love you all’, that was the last thing I heard from his mouth,” he added. “He left us a testament of love in those last words and that inspired the fight that my father and sister maintained for 30 years to make it known what had happened.”
As a gesture of hope, Susana Rojas Martínez, one of the survivors of the sinking, arrived at the tribute with her two children. The woman, who was eight years old when the massacre occurred, shared her testimony: “I could have been here today in those photos of the children who died that day.” Rojas sums up that early morning with brief and powerful words: “A lot of pain.”
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