On July 13, 1994, Cuban gun boats rammed and fired water cannons at a small tugboat (13 de Marzo) carrying 75 people fleeing Castro's Cuba, many of whom were small children. Instead of finding freedom, 41 of the tugboat's passengers, including 21 children, found death in Cuban waters.

To ensure that this brutality would not be forgotten, a Miamibased Cuban exile group, El Movimiento Democracia (the Democracy Movement) has for the last two years organized a flotilla in remembrance of the massacre of those aboard the tugboat. Last July, as the group prepared once again to set sail in memory of the victims of the brutality of the Cuban navy, they were forced to endure another brand of government intolerance  this time at the hands of the U.S. government.

The organization's boat, M/V Democracia, was about to depart from Key West Marina when the U.S. Coast Guard signaled the boat to halt and informed the group that the boat was being seized under a Declaration of National Emergency (Presidential Proclamation No. 6867, issued by President Clinton on March 6, 1996). Under the Declaration, the federal government invoked emergency authority to restrict travel by seagoing vessels in and around South Florida. Under federal regulations enforcing the proclamation, U.S. territorial seas and internal waterways of the four southernmost Florida counties were declared a "security zone" in which any "nonpublic vessel of less than 50 meters . . . may not get underway in or depart the security zone with the intent to enter Cuban territorial waters."

According to Democracy Movement National Delegate Ramon Saul Sanchez, the boat was seized because the group had indicated that it would attempt to take a rubber raft from a boat to the location in Cuban waters where the tugboat had been attacked. The boat was seized because Sanchez was on board (Sanchez was the only member of the movement who had declared that he would enter Cuban territorial waters). It was clear that the government was prepared to seize any vessel which Sanchez boarded in an effort to silence him.

The group had wanted to place a white rose in commemoration of the massacre. Sanchez said that the rose was "an expression of our nonviolent claim for respect for human rights and our right to return to our homeland." And, said Sanchez, "it was the U.S. government, not Cuba, that interfered with our exercise of freedom of expression by seizing the M/V Democracia." The flotilla continued without Sanchez, who remained in Key West, his First Amendment rights violated.

In January, the Democracy Movement filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking the return of the vessel, claiming that the seizure and Presidential Proclamation itself were unconstitutional, and that the government's indefinite holding of the vessel was unconstitutional and violated federal forfeiture laws.

The Greater Miami Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida stepped into the lawsuit in support of the Democracy Movement.

"The fact that the government did not institute any forfeiture proceedings in holding the boat was particularly disturbing," said ACLU of Florida Legal Director Andrew Kayton. "They had the authority to seize the boat under the Proclamation, but they didn't utilize any legal authority or process in keeping it."

Attorneys for the Democracy Movement, Andres Rivero, Anastasia Garcia and Joseph S. Geller, and ACLU Cooperating Attorney Sharon Kegerreis subpoenaed officials in the Clinton administration, including National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and the former chief of the U.S. Southern Command in South Florida, among others. The Democracy Movement/ACLU legal team was prepared to argue that the issuance of the Proclamation was unconstitutional and the seizure and holding of M/V Democracia violated the Fourth Amendment and due process rights of the Democracy Movement. Congressman Bob Menendez of New Jersey was prepared to testify as the first witness for the plaintiffs. Trial was scheduled for April 27.

In a surprising move, two days before trial, the case settled in a victory for the Democracy Movement with the return of its vessel complete with the repairs needed after almost a year in drydock.

"The settlement is a vindication for the Democracy Movement and the legitimate First Amendment activities that they have undertaken," Greater Miami Chapter President John de Leon noted. "Getting the boat back was of tremendous symbolic importance."

Ramon Saul Sanchez of the Democracy Movement added, "We are very grateful to the American Civil Liberties Union for serving two things: for bringing about a reasonable and civilized solution to the problem between the government and the Democracy Movement, and for opening doors to the Cuban community to have more knowledge about the importance of civil rights."