Havana-Miami

In the summer of 1994, the Caribbean Sea became the scene of a mass exodus of Cubans as they launched their homemade rafts in the direction of the United States. What were the origins of this rafters crisis ? Why did the U.S. government decide that those Cubans would not be automatically admitted as they had been previously, and instead intern them at the Guantanamo Naval Base? How was this wave of Cuban migration different from those that preceded it? How has this migration - and the Cuban emigre community - been used by Washington against Cuba since the 1959 revolution? And why has this policy become such an important U.S. domestic issue? Jesus Arboleya, an authority on Cuban migration, presents a detailed review of the different waves of Cuban migration to the United States. Arboleya considers how a lessening of the intransigence on both sides of the Florida Straits has led to the migration accords between Washington and Havana. He asks whether these accords reflect a possible new direction in the tumultuous relationship between the neighboring nations. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.