[Yardstick]

I didn't realize this was the case with the exiles, but it makes sense. I wonder, though, if it holds true for the winners of this lottery. Have you ever heard of this lottery?

[GuillermoX]

I'm not sure I've heard of that lottery.

Exiles are an extremely stubborn bunch. Any public opposition to the Embargo in Miami is a dangerous stance to take. Anyone who espouses such a stance is immediately branded a "communist Castro sympathizer", and it is true that many who are opposed to the Embargo are exactly that. But that's not the case for everyone. There are increasingly more and more, especially US-born children of Exiles, who recognize the Embargo is helping Castro and want to see it end. I suspect that many who are pro-Embargo are that because they've been for it for so many years, they could never change for fear.

[Ax]

I was stationed at the U.S. Interests Section (USINT) in Havana for four years, leaving in 1997. The "lottery" of which you speak is run by the U.S. government. Cubans may apply in writing to USINT and begin praying. I can't tell you how many Cubans stopped me on the street and asked me to hand-carry their applications in to USINT in the hopes that theirs would be bumped up to the head of the line. They also requested that I use whatever influence (nil) I had to see that their names were picked. In fact, the names were selected by the State Department in Washington.