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U.S. accepts Cuban defector's pitch for asylum
In this story:
Hernandez sports a Marlins cap December 31, 1997
- 'It was a rough trip'
- 'They will become millionaires'
- Cubans support Hernandez's decision
- 'The Marlins must sign him'
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 11:07 p.m. EST (0407 GMT)MIAMI (CNN) -- Fate, in the form of the U.S. State Department, smiled on Cuban baseball star Orlando Hernandez in his efforts to seek asylum in the United States.
A State Department spokesman, citing "special circumstances," said Wednesday that Hernandez, his wife and another baseball player who fled Cuba Tuesday have been cleared to enter the United States.
James Foley of the State Department said the other five Cubans who fled with them will remain in the custody of Bahamian immigration authorities.
Earlier, Foley had said it was likely Hernandez would be admitted because "he has close ties to the United States."
"His brother (Florida Marlins pitcher Livan Hernandez) is obviously a well-known sports figure in this country, but more significantly, the fact is that he has suffered already reprisals in Cuba as a result of his brother's defection in 1995, including being banned from playing baseball."
Foley added, "He has a very strong fear of additional and increased persecution should he be sent back to Cuba, and we're taking that concern very seriously, and we'll act on that basis."
Orlando Hernandez, 28, was found Tuesday after spending 10 hours on the water in a small sailboat that began taking on water.
He was accompanied by his wife Noris, fellow baseball player Alberto Hernandez Perez and five other defectors. They landed on Anguilla Cay in the Bahamas and were found by the U.S. Coast Guard, which turned them over to Bahamian authorities.
'It was a rough trip'
"It was a rough trip," Hernandez said at a news conference Wednesday. "We survived on Anguilla Cay by eating conch. It seems to me I've lost some weight."
The group was held in a detention center in the Bahamas while authorities, diplomats, baseball agents and Cuban exile groups scrambled to determine their future.
Ordinarily, Cubans who flee their country are returned to Cuba, but the two baseball players were banned from the sport for life by Cuban authorities after Hernandez's brother defected in 1995. Livan Hernandez was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Series this fall after the Marlins won the baseball championship.
A U.S. Embassy representative visited the Cubans at the detention center and they all expressed an interest in coming to the United States, Foley said.
Bahamian authorities, meanwhile, assured the U.S. officials that the group would not be repatriated immediately.
"For a long time I've wanted to do this, but it wasn't convenient," Hernandez said. "I know this decision is going to have a rippling effect on others."
Hernandez fell into the tearful embrace of an uncle, Ocilio Cruz, who arrived from Miami with clothing.
"This is the best present I could have gotten for the new year and Christmas," Cruz said.
'They will become millionaires'
Hernandez has been considered a better pitcher than his younger brother Known to fans in baseball-mad Cuba as "El Duque" (the Duke), Hernandez has been working as a sports trainer in a Havana psychiatric hospital and earning about 200 pesos ($10) a month.
The Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, an exile group, sent a representative to Nassau to assist Hernandez, spokeswoman Ninoska Perez said. "The important thing right now is to ensure he is not sent back," she said.
Cuban-American sports agent Jose Cubas, who has helped several Cuban baseball stars defect, including Livan, also flew to the Bahamas to talk to the players.
A bidding war is expected as U.S. baseball clubs vie for both Orlando Hernandez and Alberto Hernandez Perez.
"They are both very good players," said Milton Jamail, a University of Texas professor who is writing a book on Cuban baseball. "They will become millionaires overnight just from the signing fees."
Orlando Hernandez was considered a better pitcher than his brother in Cuba, but at 28 he is not the prospect he would have been a few years ago.
Livan was the Most Valuable Player of the World Series "His situation is different now because of the age factor," said Al Avila, director of Latin American operations for the world champion Marlins.
Cubans support Hernandez's decision
Meanwhile, Hernandez's countrymen sympathized with his decision to leave.
"The government didn't give him any other choice," said a middle-aged Havana teacher who called himself Luis. "He was marginalized, abandoned, and his friends from baseball wouldn't talk to him because they were afraid of problems with the government."
In an interview with National Public Radio only last week, Hernandez said he had to submit to "quite a lot of humiliation here. But if there is something that keeps me alive, it is my will and faith, because I believe in God and because I believe I might be able to play baseball again."
Hernandez left behind two young daughters by a previous marriage, but his former wife, Norma Manso, supported his decision.
"He did the right thing if it's for his good," she said. "I'm happy, and I think everyone else will be."
"It took me by surprise," Hernandez's mother, Maria Julia Pedroso, told CNN, "but there were a lot of people that expected this. Baseball was his life, and I think if they had allowed him to continue playing, even if just in the (Cuban) national league, my son would never have left Cuba."
'The Marlins must sign him'
As for Livan Hernandez, 22, he said of his impending visit with his older brother, "I'm going to hug him ... and let him know that he had to move forward in his life and become a star player in the big leagues."
Livan, who is the grand marshal of Miami's New Year's Eve Orange Bowl Parade, said it would be a dream come true for his brother to play baseball again.
"The Marlins must sign him," he told Miami's el Nuevo Herald newspaper. "I want to pitch on the same team as him."
Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman, Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Mother of Marlins pitcher allowed to enter U.S. from Cuba - October 20, 1997
- Cuban baseball star defects - July 10, 1996
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