I wouldn’t even remotely think about returning to Cuba, as they have hurt me so much
Stáhnout obrázek
Sergio Perodín was born in 1956. He comes from a family of humble workers. He also had a life as a worker in the Cuban Transportation Company, in the employees’ food section. It was at the beginning of the 1990s, when he began to feel pressure from State Security, which was suspecting that he was collaborating with Human Rights Organizations, and for this reason, they began to persecute him. As all this kind of accusations was completely false and Sergio Perodín did not feel comfortable under constant surveillance, he decided to plan an attempt to leave Cuba through the sea. Thanks to his friends he became part of a group of several people who began to meet with the intention of embarking on a ship and leaving to the United States. The boat that was chosen for that purpose was the Tugboat March 13. Once the preparations were finished, the third attempt to embark went well and the 72 people went to the sea, including Sergio Perodín with his wife and their two children, who were by then seven and eleven years old. However, the State Security had managed to infiltrate the group and it turned out as one of the worst attacks by the Cuban authorities against the Cuban people. The March 13 Tugboat was attacked by firefighting boats, which fired strong jets of water, causing damage to the vessel. Subsequently, the March 13 Tugboat was surrounded by three government boats, which sank it, leaving dozens of people drowned in the sea, including several children, while one of them was their eldest son. Also, the wife of Sergio Perodín died when his ship sank. Sergio Perodín managed to save his youngest son. Once picked up from the sea, they were transferred to a prison and after a little more than a month they put him under surveillance in house arrest. Sergio Perodín tried to escape once again, this time on a raft that was located by the US Coast Guard, after which he and his youngest son spent five months at the Guantánamo base. After five months, they were finally able to go to the United States, where Sergio Perodín managed to establish a new family and live a life far from the island that caused him so much pain.