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MIAMI (AP) - A man signaled with a flashlight in the early July morning as his pregnant wife and 30 other Cubans huddled along the coast of Matanzas, Cuba. A speedy fishing boat pulled close to shore and two smugglers loaded the group aboard.
Then, like thousands of other Cubans who attempt the trip each year, they prayed the cramped vessel would make it across the roughly 150 miles to Key West.
If caught at sea by the Cuban or U.S. coast guards, they would be returned to the communist island to be ostracized, denied work, even imprisoned. If their boat capsized, they would probably die.
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