Tuesday, June 21, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.
Bernardo Heredia's family was stunned when he walked into his house in Las Vegas on Sunday.
"I just came through the door, and my wife was taking a nap. When she saw me, she said, 'What is this?' " Heredia said, sitting on his living room couch Monday evening.
Heredia had been essentially trapped in Cuba for the last 4 1/2 months. In a scheme that went awry, Heredia, who has been living in the United States for more than 10 years, convinced his younger brother Fidel to use his Cuban passport and U.S. residency card to get into the United States.
Heredia, who was visiting Havana at the time, intended to return to America when Fidel mailed the documents back to Cuba.
Cuban immigration officials, however, stopped Heredia at the airport in Havana when they discovered that his passport had been used a few days before. Heredia was placed in a detention center for 30 days and, upon his release, was told by officials that he couldn't leave Cuba.
But last week, he said, Cuban officials agreed to allow him to return to America.
"They said, 'We don't want you anymore,' " he joked.
His brother Fidel, who was at Heredia's home, said that he was overjoyed that his brother had returned.
"I am very happy that everything worked out like we thought," Fidel Heredia said in Spanish. Bernardo Heredia acted as a translator.
"I was sure that he would come back," Fidel Heredia said.
Since arriving in Las Vegas, Fidel Heredia has been working as a night porter at Wynn Las Vegas. Bernardo Heredia is a taxi driver.
It's not difficult to see how the two brothers initially fooled Cuban officials. Both have shaved heads and stocky builds and nearly identical facial features. Sitting next to each other on a couch in their home, they could easily pass for identical twins.
Heredia said the huge amount of media attention his case attracted, as well as opposition groups in Cuba such as the Hard Line Front (Frente Linea Dura), helped pressure the Cuban government to allow him to leave. On Saturday he boarded a plane and, after a transfer in Monterrey, Mexico, arrived in Tijuana.
From there, he walked over the border to America, where he quickly found his way to a McDonald's and ordered the first American meal he'd eaten in almost five months.
"They don't have McDonald's in Cuba," he said.
He was driven from San Diego to Las Vegas and arrived at his home around 5 p.m. on Sunday -- just in time to celebrate Father's Day with his wife and daughter.
Heredia didn't tell his wife that he was coming home because he didn't want to get her hopes up. He had heard that Cuban officials might say that he was allowed to leave, only to rescind the offer once he arrived at the airport in order to intimidate him.
Heredia had few good things to say about Cuba. He railed against the government for prohibiting the free-flow of information. He said there is no Internet use, no international news on state-run television.
"They only have Castro on T.V. -- it's a nightmare," he said with a smile.
In fact, he wasn't aware of the international media attention his case had created until he checked it when he returned to America.
He said the one bright spot of his time in Havana was the support from Cubans. He said he had become a bit of a celebrity in Havana, and people who would see him on the street would offer him encouraging words of support.
In May, he attempted to escape Cuba by sea, he said. He and a friend purchased broken-down jet-skis from an Italian in Havana. After fixing the jet-skis, he and his friend loaded them with 20 liter tanks holding fuel and headed toward America.
However, because of the weight of the fuel tanks, the jet-skis became unstable and kept rolling. He estimates that he and his friend were miles from the Cuban shore when they decided they could go no further. Heredia said they began swimming back to the shore and were eventually picked up by fisherman, who returned them to Cuba.
Even if they had reached the U.S. on the jet skis, they very likely would have been sent back to Cuba. Cuban migrants who reach U.S. soil are often allowed to stay in America under the "wet foot-dry foot" policy, while those intercepted at sea are normally returned to Cuba. That's why Bernardo Heredia had given his brother his U.S. residency card and other documentation, so his brother could fly into Mexico.
Bernardo Heredia first came to America in 1994 by raft. He landed in Miami and, after convalescing from the grueling journey from Cuba, traveled to Las Vegas. He had remained in Las Vegas while his brother Fidel lived in Cuba.
Though they are now reunited in Las Vegas, they worry about family they left behind in Cuba. Their mother and sister remain in Cuba, as do Fidel Heredia's wife and son. They hope that one day they will all be together again -- in the U.S.
Bernardo Heredia said it was unlikely that he would ever return to Cuba.
"I don't think they will issue me a new passport after all this fuss. But I don't have the intention of going back soon," he said.
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