Word: rafts
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...when Bill Clinton sat down with his top advisers last week to figure out what to do with the thousands of Cuban refugees floating toward Florida on every kind of makeshift raft they could tie together, there seemed no other choice. The President had already insisted he would not let the boat people into the U.S. proper -- that was politically unacceptable -- but the refugee flow swelled rather than ebbed. Blockade the island? Not really; that would be an act of war. Send the refugees back to Castro? Too heartless, and besides, he would not take them...
...policy change would be any more of a deterrent than the sharks, the hunger, the stormy seas that refugees were already braving. In the Havana suburb of Miramar, the news that boat people would be detained did not deter a young Cuban who was hurrying to finish his raft. "I'll take my chances," he said. "They won't send us back...
...boat, the Pilar. The town's fishermen inspired The Old Man and the Sea. Last Monday night, from out of La Terraza bar, which he once patronized, a bronze head of Hemingway looked to the coast, toward five young men and the sea. They crawled silently aboard a homemade raft loaded with plastic soda bottles filled with fresh water, canned condensed milk, cheese, knives and fishing equipment. A big tarp was onboard to protect them from...
...raft consisted simply of two massive truck inner tubes encased in a frame of iron and wood, all covered with Styrofoam. The young men, who range in age from 20 to 30, had planned this trip for weeks. To train for the adventure, each went out daily on an inner tube to fish, both at night and by day. The men did not give their names. One says he is sure they will make it to Florida. A few years ago, they would have spent a year in jail for "illegal departure" if they were picked up by Cuban patrol...
Talk about Huck! This kid is soon up the creek without raft or paddle. The Mafia wants to prevent him from talking about the stiff, and an ambitious, media-mad federal prosecutor (Tommy Lee Jones at his smarmy best) is equally determined to get his testimony. Mark's only ally is a nice lady lawyer (Susan Sarandon), shaky-brave and, since she's lost her own children in an ugly divorce, ready to do a little surrogate mothering...