Word: castro
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Though the U.S. steps are designed to rob Castro of a safety vent to defuse unrest in his country, the number of Cubans taking to the sea did not immediately diminish in the wake of Clinton's pronouncements. On Friday, about 575 refugees arrived; Saturday brought another 861. Moreover, the President's stiffened economic sanctions will only increase the tensions that send Cubans dashing toward the beaches in the first place. At the same time, Castro's castaways must now swallow a humiliating demotion in status. The waning of superpower rivalry has weakened Cubans' claims to being fugitives from political...
...mile crossing to Florida. But it was clear that American threats stood little chance of prevailing over Cuba's hungers. By the time President Clinton went on television to reverse nearly 30 years of Cuban policy, he was characterizing the exodus as "a cold-blooded attempt to maintain the Castro grip on Cuba." Unwilling to be blackmailed by the threat of a humanitarian disaster, Clinton revoked the special status Cuban refugees have long enjoyed, which guarantees them asylum if they reach U.S. shores...
...asylum process, the President announced on Friday that refugees trying to make it to the U.S. will now face indefinite detention while their cases are reviewed by immigration officials. By Saturday Clinton had imposed other stringencies on Cuba, including new limits on charter flights and an increase in anti-Castro radio broadcasts. Most important, Clinton pledged to cut off cash transfers from Cuban Americans to their relatives on the island -- gifts that have been estimated to total $500 million a year...
Within hours of the announcement, Navy ships began collecting refugees intercepted by the Coast Guard and ferrying them to Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. The people of the U.S. "do not want to see Cuba dictate our immigration policy," Clinton declared. "They do not want to see Mr. Castro export his political and economic problems to the United States. We tried it that way once," he said, referring to the 1980 Mariel boatlift, which brought 125,000 refugees to America in five months. "It was wrong then, and it's wrong now, and I'm not going to let it happen...
...categorically rejected Fidel Castro's televised appeal for talks to lift the 32-year-old embargo on the communist island, even as Castro flung open the gates for Cubans who set sail in droves for U.S. shores. "Our position is that we are not going to enter a dialogue with Castro over the pace and nature of change in Cuba," Under Secretary of State Peter Tarnoff said. "This is not a situation that has been brought on by American actions." With the rate of intercepted refugees at 3,200 a day, Department of Defense officials decided to send as many...