Yahoo!
March 1, 2002.
Youths in Mexican Embassy in Cuba evicted at Mexico's request
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA - (AP) -- Acting on Mexico's request, Cuban authorities removed 21
young men occupying the Mexican Embassy early Friday after they repeatedly
refused to leave peacefully on their own, the government said.
The men, who apparently were seeking to leave the island, crashed the gates
of the embassy in a stolen bus late Wednesday night.
''Today at 4:30 a.m., an operation by specialized and unarmed personnel
undertook the eviction, which took place without the least minor incident ...
and conforming to the request and desires of the government of Mexico,'' the
communist government said in a statement Friday.
The statement said Mexico had requested the eviction after the group
repeatedly denied requests from a Mexican official that they leave the grounds.
Mexican President Vicente Fox had sent the foreign relations department
official, Gustavo Iruegas, to try to resolve the crisis.
Journalists at the scene were unable to watch the operation because the
street outside the mission was blocked by police cars and wooden barricades. Two
trucks were seen speeding away from the embassy shortly after 4:30 a.m., but it
was not known whether the Cubans were inside.
There was no information on where they were taken or what charges might be
filed against them.
Shortly before the operation, Cuba issued a communique that described the
young men as common criminals who were not politically motivated in their
attempt to leave the island.
''None of them is really motivated by ideas or objectives of a political
character,'' the government statement said. "Soon it will be said that the
people caught up in the adventure of Wednesday night are dissidents and
prisoners of conscience, but that won't stop us from unmasking them from head to
toe.''
Fox spoke with Cuban President Fidel Castro about the situation by telephone
on Thursday, said Gloria Abella, spokeswoman for Mexico's Foreign Relations
Ministry.
Abella also said the youths were not political dissidents.
''There has been no request for political asylum, this is a different kind
of situation,'' Abella said at a news conference in Mexico City. "These are
young people facing a difficult economic situation, like many in Latin
America.''
In the first statement issued early Friday, the Cuban government offered
details about the occupation of the embassy and the police operation outside the
mission Wednesday evening.
It said that the bus was seized nearby and the passengers aboard were forced
off before it went speeding toward the mission gates. While 21 youths managed to
enter the embassy grounds, another four sustained injuries that required
hospitalization.
After the occupation, police arrested 150 more people who then attempted to
enter the embassy, the statement said. The government also characterized those
people as ''anti-social'' criminals.
The standoff followed a statement from Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge
Castaneda, who was in Miami this week. During his visit, Castaneda was quoted by
U.S. media as saying ''the doors of the embassy of Mexico on the island are open
to all Cuban citizens.'' The statement was repeatedly broadcast in Cuba by
U.S.-based Radio Marti.
Castaneda said Thursday that his words had been taken out of context by
''radicals'' in Miami who "no doubt wanted to use, to distort, my
declarations.''
Castaneda told Radio Red that reports in Miami had confused two separate
statements he made there while opening a Mexican Cultural Center. He said he
declared the center's ''doors are open to the entire Latino community in Miami''
while also saying that Mexico itself was open to Cuban dissidents.
In a statement Thursday, Fidel Castro's government called the reports from
Radio Marti a ''gross provocation'' that led listeners to believe that Mexico
would grant refuge to any Cuban who showed up.
Operated largely by Cuban exiles in Miami, Radio Marti beams anti-Castro
news, talk shows and other programs to the island.
Radio Marti officials in Miami denied the allegations Thursday.
''Radio Marti did not manipulate Castaneda's message,'' said Wilfredo
Granados, the station's chief of reporters and correspondents.
Cubans Hide in Mexico Embassy
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer.Thu Feb 28,11:03
PM ET
HAVANA - Twenty-one Cubans remained holed up in the Mexican Embassy on
Thursday after plowing through the gates with a stolen bus. Cuba's government
blamed an exile-run U.S. government radio station for repeatedly quoting a
Mexican official as saying the embassy's doors "are open."
By the evening, Mexican officials were seeking a solution to the standoff in
separate talks with the Cubans in the embassy and with Cuban officials in
Havana, said Gloria Abella, Mexico's Foreign Department spokeswoman.
"The matter will be resolved in two to three days," she told The
Associated Press in Mexico City.
Mexican officials were discussing the matter "in the sense that those
young people leave the embassy and do not face problems," Abella said.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda said Thursday that standoff began
after his words were taken out of context by "radicals" in Miami who "no
doubt wanted to use, to distort, my declarations."
Castaneda told Radio Red that reports in Miami had confused two separate
statements he made there while opening a Mexican Cultural Center. He said he
declared the center's "doors are open to the entire Latino community in
Miami" while also saying that Mexico itself was open to Cuban dissidents.
He said Mexican officials were trying to persuade the Cubans to leave and
they had not asked for asylum. Castaneda also indicated it was unlikely they
would get Mexican visas.
Mexico has asked Cuba to bring in "a large deployment of public forces"
to prevent an event like the one Wednesday night from happening again, Castaneda
told Radio Red in Mexico City. "We will not permit it."
There were 21 Cuban men inside the mission Thursday, other Mexican officials
said on condition they not be named. They described the situation inside as "calm"
and said the Cubans had received food and medical attention.
Gustavo Irruegas, the No. 2 man for Mexico's Foreign Ministry, arrived at
the embassy at Thursday afternoon along with Andres Ordonez, the embassy's
acting chief of mission. They did not speak with reporters.
In a statement Thursday, Fidel Castro's government called the reports from
Radio Marti a "gross provocation" that led listeners to believe that
Mexico would grant refuge to any Cuban who showed up. Operated largely by Cuban
exiles in Miami, Radio Marti beams anti-Castro news, talk shows and other
programs to the island.
"Castro blames us anytime anything happens. He has to blame somebody,"
said Salvador Lew, director of the Miami-based station. "The Cuban people
will go to any place, even a movie, to escape the Cuban system."
During a visit to Miami this week, Castaneda was quoted by news media there
as saying "the doors of the embassy of Mexico on the island are open to all
Cuban citizens."
The Cuban government said Radio Marti rebroadcast that statement at least
eight times on Thursday. It accused the station of provoking the embassy
invasion with the repeated broadcasts, which it said were interpreted as "an
open invitation to occupy the Mexican Embassy in Cuba."
In Miami, Radio Marti officials denied the allegations Thursday. "Radio
Marti did not manipulate Castaneda's message," said Wilfredo Granados, the
station's chief of reporters and correspondents.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the
administration was confident that the Mexican government would find a solution
which pays due regard to humanitarian concerns and to its international
obligations.
"We note that in a similar case, in 1993, the Cubans who had entered
the Mexican Embassy were permitted to leave Cuba," Boucher said.
The incident, he said, underscores the need for change in Cuba. "Cubans
would not seek entry to foreign embassies if they had an opportunity to choose
their own government...They wouldn't have to go through the wall if they were
allowed to go to the front door."
Mexican President Vicente fox spoke with Castro about the situation by
telephone Thursday, said Fox spokeswoman Gloria Abella. She said talks between
the two countries are aimed at "getting these young people to leave our
embassy."
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said in a
statement that it hoped Cuba and Mexico could reach a "negotiated and
humane solution" ensuring the would-be emigres do not suffer persecution in
their homeland.
The group, however, denounced the forced entry into the embassy saying,"it
puts at risk their own lives and those of agents of authority, journalists and
other innocent people."
Confusion reigned around the embassy on Thursday, with a small trickle of
people showing up hoping to enter the two-story mission.
Accompanied by a neighbor, Margarita Gonzalez, 52, approached a police
officer guarding a street leading to the embassy and said she understood "Mexico
is approving departures and I want to leave."
"I have my reasons: my grandchildren, my nieces and nephews, my
brothers in the United States," Gonzalez said.
The chaotic scene outside Mexico's mission on Wednesday night evoked
memories of 1980, when Cubans crashed a bus into the gate of the Peruvian
Embassy and sought asylum. In the dispute that followed, Cuba withdrew its
guards, prompting about 10,000 people to flood the mission grounds.
Castro then opened the port of Mariel, and 125,000 Cubans — including
those who had been in the Peruvian Embassy — fled to the United States in a
chaotic boat exodus.
Overnight Wednesday, scores of police and state security agents shut down
all traffic for blocks around the embassy. Several truckloads of pro-government
workers, some carrying wooden sticks or metal pipes, pulled up near the embassy
early Thursday.
An unspecified number of people were detained and many more were stopped,
questioned and searched. The police presence had waned considerably by sunrise,
however.
The government statement said the occupation of the Mexican Embassy took
place about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when a group of about 20 "anti-social
elements" hijacked a bus and slammed into the embassy gates.
Cuban officials said at least one of the gate crashers was injured and taken
away for medical treatment.
Castro arrived at the scene shortly after midnight Thursday to assess the
situation and was cheered by more than 100 Cuban bystanders. Traveling in a
group of three military jeeps, Castro was accompanied by Foreign Minister Felipe
Perez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage, among others.
There have been similar rushes on foreign embassies in Havana by Cubans
seeking to leave the country, but not in the last few years.
In 1997, hundreds of pro-government workers and students blocked access to
the Spanish Embassy after rumors that Spain would grant a large number of visas
to Cuba. Would-be emigres were arrested or dispersed.
A spate of embassy occupations in the spring of 1994 — all unsuccessful
— preceded an exodus of about 32,000 Cubans who left the island for the
United States on rickety boats and rafts. Castro set off the exodus by
announcing his government would not stop anyone who wanted to leave the country. | 
