Word: castros
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...week's end the ragtag regatta had carried nearly 8,000 Cuban refugees to the U.S., thus bringing the total number ferried by the sealift so far to well over 10,000. They come to escape impoverishment, political repression and Castro, and to shape new lives for themselves in the U.S. The sudden influx forced Florida Governor Bob Graham to declare a state of emergency in Monroe and Dade counties-the area stretching from Key West to Miami-and led the U.S. Government to start airlifting refugees from Key West to Eglin Air Force Base in northwest Florida. There...
Much of the confusion can be traced to the Cuban Premier, who has regularly changed the rules and played to his own interests throughout the world's latest refugee flight. When nearly 11,000 Cubans crammed into the Peruvian embassy compound in Havana last month seeking political asylum, Castro promised salidas (exit visas) to all those who could gain permission from other countries to emigrate there. But after an airlift organized by Costa Rica had evacuated 678 of the 6,250 would-be exiles accepted by eight nations, including the U.S., Castro suddenly canceled the flights. Havana instead proclaimed...
...Mariel. When that failed to deter the flotilla, the Government hinted it might accept only the first 3,500, whether embassy refugees or not, and deport the rest. The threat was correctly seen as an empty one since the U.S. has routinely granted asylum to Cuban refugees since Castro came to power...
...million would like to leave the island; others put the figure at 1 million and more. As for the man who started the flood, he apparently has no intention of turning it off. "We don't want them, we don't need them," thundered Castro of the refugees at a May Day rally in Havana last week.. He claimed that he had opened Mariel to teach the U.S. a lesson for welcoming as heroes those who hijacked boats from Cuba in order to reach U.S. shores. Chortled Castro: "We really have an open road...
Indeed that is a challenge the Carter Administration is still scrambling to meet. "We want to stop the flow because Castro cannot be allowed to dictate who comes into the U.S.," said one State Department official. "On the other hand, we have a tradition of accepting people from Cuba and it's highly unlikely that we would send people back...