Passenger ferry hijacked in Cuba, US sends negotiators

yahoo.com ^ | April 2, 2003 | AFP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Fidel Castro - Cuba

[PistolPaknMama]

Why on earth would the US send negotiators to a CUBAN ferry loaded with CUBANS and highjacked by CUBANS in international waters. What is there to negotiate? "Are you sure you want this boat to go to the US?" "Are you really really sure you want this boat to go to the US?"

[onedoug]

Piracy is terrorism and terrorist pirates should be treated as such.

[PoisedWoman]

The number of attempts to escape Cuba recently suggests that things are heating up there. I wish the dissidents had guns so they could bring Fidel down.

[monday]

"Those intercepted on the high seas are returned to the communist-ruled island."

This is cruel. Whats the point in making these people suffer Castros cruelty? I guess all gov'ts are cruel. They only differ in degree.

It would be nice if Castro would just die. So much suffering just to satisfy the megalomania of one man.

[monday]

"Piracy is terrorism and terrorist pirates should be treated as such."

I hope you never have to choose between a wasted life of misery and slavery or using any means available to escape. Speaking for myself, I would choose anything over slavery.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Some Cubans who get close to, but not on U.S. land, will swallow glass just to get taken to the hospital. Then they can, if they live, stay. There has been a lot of activity lately. Castro has started a new wave of arrests and is jailing his oppostion.

[onedoug]

I hope not too, though morality is not relative. I stand by my statement.

[Eala]

This story must be false. Why, we all know what a paradise Cuba is.

[TopQuark]

YOu will never have to worry about the loyalty of these immigrants.

[TopQuark]

Look up the words "piracy" and "terrorism." You are misusing both.

[onedoug]

I disagree.

[browardchad]

Speaking for myself, I would choose anything over slavery.

Including endangering the lives of other people? Yesterday, there were women and children forced to jump from the back of a plane onto the runway in Havana. The two planes hijacked during the past two weeks weren't prepared to fly to Florida, and this ferry isn't exactly an ocean-going vessel. Those who hijacked the planes are now in prison, by the way.

Will the next hijacker be a hero when people who have no choice in the matter die?

[Joe Boucher]

sounds like it's getting close to time for Fidel to open his prisons and insane asylums again and send more of his scum to the United States.
The last time a boatlift happened after about a week the weather turned real bad and the seas rose to about 10 feet.
After they calmed I went fishing and that day we found 11 rafts made of practically nothing. All were intact and all were empty.
Fish use floating objects as shade umbrellas in the summer to get relief from the heat. We checked out each raft and fished each. It was the best day of fishing I've ever had.
We filled our freezers up and ate fish for the year but.
The Coast Guard had either been sinking or painting rafts with phosporesent paint to indicate to planes that the raft had been rescued. None of the rafts we saw were either painted nor burnt.
I fear that each lost its cargo at sea.
Rafts were made differently. One was simply copper pipes strung together with baling wire. Several were 55 gallon drums with timbers and water bottles.
Castro is a murderous dog. TOO bad Cuba doesn't have oil or we'd be rescueing them too.

[monday]

"Including endangering the lives of other people? "

No one died. Don't be such a drama queen.

Hard decisions have to be made when no easy choice is available. Cubans have difficult choices to make and while I might not elect to hijack a plane or boat in order to reach freedom, I find it hard to condemn others for doing so.

The drive to live free is strong in some. Those with a totaltarian bent have a hard time understanding it. Incidently it those who meakly follow authority which make totalitarian governments possible.

[browardchad]

Don't be such a drama queen.

The Miami Herald is reporting rough seas, five-foot waves, the ferry out of fuel and adrift 30 miles from the Cuban coast. The Sun-Sentinel is reporting 8-foot swells in the Florida straits. Both estimate 50 people on board. Havana is reporting that the hijackers are threatening to throw people overboard, but we can take that with a large grain of salt, I hope.

Consider this a "drama queen" update....

[monday]

thx drama queen:)

[dennisw]

Cuban pirates are going to be allowed to bring their boat here?

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Check the manifest. See if Elian is on board.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Castro Seeks Life Sentences for Dissidents - Trial Today - Where's Jimmy Carter? *** The Cuban government has provided no information about the trials and it was unknown if international journalists would be granted access. Authorities here have accused those arrested of being traitors and mercenaries for the U.S. government. Cuban Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon said Monday that authorities had sufficient evidence to try the dissidents, adding that most nations had laws "to defend their sovereignty." The crackdown began when Cuban officials criticized the head of the American mission in Havana, James Cason, for his active support of the island's opposition.

Accusations that the detainees engaged in treason and are mercenaries "only show the repressive nature of the Castro regime and its fear of any sign of opposition to its ironclad rule," Roberto Zimmerman, spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Latin America bureau, said in Washington on Wednesday. The Cubans "are being tried for exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association," said Zimmerman.

The roundup followed several years of relative government tolerance for dissidents. During that time, the opposition grew stronger, more organized and more daring. Those arrested included independent journalists, directors of non-governmental libraries, members of opposition political parties and volunteers for the Varela Project, a pro-democracy petition drive.***