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.
[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.
[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.
[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.