Word: peruvians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...world's latest refugee saga began three weeks ago, when an estimated 10,800 Cubans jammed into the Peruvian embassy compound in Havana seeking political asylum after guards were temporarily removed from the embassy's gates. The sight of these would-be exiles, demanding to leave Fidel Castro's so-called paradise, was deeply embarrassing to the Cuban President. With the world watching, he had no choice but to grant them exit visas. Eight nations eventually agreed to admit 6,250 of the exiles; the U.S. said that it would take 3,500, the largest single group...
...community of 600,000 Cuban Americans that Castro was allowing boats to enter the port of Mariel, 27 miles west of Havana, to pick up refugees. Most important to the Cuban Americans, Castro was apparently willing to issue exit permits to any Cuban-not just the squatters at the Peruvian embassy...
Presumably, Castro also decided that the evacuation would turn world attention away from the Peruvian embassy fiasco and focus the spotlight instead on Washington's scramble to cope with the flood of refugees. In this, Castro appeared to be successful. "He sure is clever at making his problem our problem," said one White House aide...
...onetime jail and the former presidential offices, most of the refugees in San José waited to fly on to the countries that had agreed to accept them. At week's end an initial group of 97 moved on to Lima, where the exhausted exiles were welcomed by Peruvian Foreign Minister Arturo Garcia y Garcia; an Iberia jet flew 50 more refugees directly from Havana to Spain. The overwhelming majority, however, indicated a preference for resettlement in the U.S. "All 10,000 would like to go to Miami," observed one Costa Rican official. "But we can't satisfy...
...visas to leave if other countries would accept them. He also assured them that they could move freely out of the embassy, but many refused to budge, fearful that they would not be readmitted or would be beaten up by the pro-regime bullyboys who waited just outside. Meanwhile, Peruvian officials, pleading that they could not possibly accommodate all the refugees, called an emergency meeting of the Andean pact nations. At week's end all five members -Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Peru-as well as several other countries offered to take in the refugees. The U.S., which...