Free Republic

MIAMI, Dec. 17 - The number of Cubans intercepted at sea while trying to reach the United States is at its highest level since tens of thousands took to the Florida Straits on makeshift rafts and in small boats in the 1994 exodus sanctioned by President Fidel Castro. The sharp rise - and an increase in clashes between would-be immigrants and the Coast Guard - are inflaming tensions over a policy enacted in response to the 1994 migration that allows Cubans without visas to stay if they reach American soil but turns back those caught at sea. The "wet foot,...

A vintage blue taxicab converted into a seagoing vessel and carrying several Cuban immigrants was intercepted Tuesday off Key West by the Coast Guard, a television station reported.

Three Cuban dissidents in a telephone hookup from Havana told a congressional panel on Thursday that allowing American tourists to visit the island would bring corruption, not democracy. As members of a House of Representatives International Relations subcommittee praised them for defying Cuban President Fidel Castro, the dissidents endorsed U.S. policies to isolate his government. "We are supporting what you are doing there because we have a lot of people suffering in jail. We need democracy," said Martha Beatriz Roque, leader of the Cuban Dissident Working Group. Castro "could present it as a great political victory" for himself if the...

MIAMI (AP) _ A federal judge has set a Monday trial date for the claims of a dozen people who said they were wrongly assaulted by federal officers during the raid that removed Elian Gonzalez from his family's home. The plaintiffs say they were innocent bystanders who were gassed and beaten outside the home during the early morning raid on April 22, 2000. U.S. District Judge Michael Moore set the trial date Friday. "I think the public's going to be surprised that elderly people were gassed while praying the rosary," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which represents 11...

As his leading rivals for president hone positions on Cuba policy that appease South Florida's powerful exile bloc, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark is gaining notice for a divergent approach: a willingness to discuss easing the decades-long trade embargo against the island and its dictator. Clark stops short of saying he would lift sanctions, but his nuanced responses to reporters, exile leaders and even a questioner at a nationally televised debate last month in Boston leave little doubt that a Clark administration could well do more than any other in 40 years to build ties with Fidel Castro's government. ''In...

"PRESIDENT BUSH is the most pro-democracy, pro-freedom president on Cuba that we've ever had," says Emilio Gonzalez, who recently stepped down as the National Security Council's expert on Cuba. Maybe so. Bush has vowed to block any attempt to repeal the trade embargo against Cuba. He's transformed the American interest section in Havana into a proactive spearhead for supporting Cuban dissidents. Bush raises the Cuba issue when he meets with European and Latin American leaders. He's recruited the European Union to campaign for human rights in Cuba, and he's persuaded Europeans to invite Cuban dissidents to events at their Havana...

Worldwide sentiment continues to move against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In recent months, Castro has stepped up repression in his communist enclave and has even lost the support of some Europeans and Third World allies. The Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba reports that in the past week alone: At a Madrid seminar, former Czech President Vaclav Havel urged the European Union to establish a fund in support of political reform in Cuba. Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said: "Fidel Castro’s regime has run its course. The Cuban Suarez (a reference to Franco’s minister, who led the Spanish transition) is...