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The sinking of the tugboat 13 de Marzo was an incident on July 13, 1994, when 72 Cubans attempted to leave the island of Cuba on a stolen tugboat, to seek asylum in the United States. 41 passengers were drowned at sea when the tugboat sank. It was alleged that the Cuban coast guard deliberately sank the commandeered vessel and then refused to rescue some of the passengers. The Cuban government stated that the boat was sunk by accident.
On July 13, 1994, at approximately three in the morning, seventy-two men, women, and children commandeered the tugboat 13 de Marzo ("13th of March"), intending to seek asylum in the United States.[1][2] With all vessels in Cuba owned by the state, it would have been illegal to acquire such a boat.[3]
Cuba Archive, a Washington DC-registered and Miami-based organization which promotes human rights in Cuba, has alleged that the Cuban coast guard deliberately sank the commandeered vessel and then refused to rescue some of the passengers.[3] According to survivor María Victoria García, whose ten-year-old son, husband, and other close family members died, but who eventually resettled in the United States in 1999, the government vessels refused to provide assistance to some of the distressed passengers. As a result, only 31 survivors were pulled from the water.[3] She said:
After nearly an hour of battling in the open sea, the boat circled round the survivors, creating a whirlpool so that we would drown. Many disappeared into the seas... We asked them to save us, but they just laughed, they then told us to jam random objects up our noses.[3]
For their part, the Cuban government denied responsibility, and stated that the boat was sunk by accident.[1]
Amnesty International said the following with regard to the involvement of the Cuban Government "there is sufficient evidence to indicate that it was an official operation and that, if events occurred in the way described by several of the survivors, those who died as a result of the incident were victims of extrajudicial execution."[4]
International leaders, including Pope John Paul II, made statements about the incident and expressed condolences to the victims.[3]
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1994
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