Word: cuba
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...CUBA Do-It-Yourself Airlift
Shortly after sunset one evening, a Cubana Airlines Ilyushin-18 took off from Santiago, Cuba's second largest city, bound for Havana with 91 passengers. Among the crew was Flight Engineer Angel Betancourt Cueto, who was prepared to risk his life to escape Cuba. Seventy miles west of Havana. Betancourt made his move. Locking the door that separates the flight deck from the passengers, he suddenly slugged the guard who stood just behind the pilot and copilot and ordered Captain Fernando Alvarez Perez to set a course for Miami. "From this moment," as a government communiqué later described...
...plane neared Key West, four U.S. Navy F-102s streaked aloft to give it the once-over. But it already was curving back toward Cuba. It was long after dark, and the plane was touching down on the runway at Havana's José Marti Airport, when Betancourt caught on to the trick. Angrily, he ordered Alvarez to take off again. When the pilot refused, Betancourt shot him dead and frantically tried to get the plane off the ground himself. But the Ilyushin only roared off the end of the runway and came to rest in a plowed field...
Since the twice-a-day flights began between Miami and Cuba's Varadero last December, more than 14,000 refugees have left, running the total number of Cuban refugees in the U.S. to 270,000. In some cases, Castro tried to smuggle in agents; he even tried to export a few lepers on the sly. But immigration screening has been tight, and few ringers have slipped past interrogators. Some 30% of the refugees have remained in South Florida, and other concentrations are around New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans. The rest are scattered over the 50 states...
...Everyone in Cuba is bitter," said one young mother from Camaguey, who arrived in Miami last week. "There isn't much food, rice is rationed, and you have to stand in line every day for coffee. Cuba is a jail." Added her husband, a former railroad shop foreman: "They don't give you work if you are not with the government, and if you are with the government, you have to cut sugar cane, join the militia and stand guard." Cubans who decide to leave lose everything. Those in nonessential jobs are summarily fired, and must sign over...