ST. MARTINVILLE, Louisiana (CNN) -- Federal and state negotiators
                  have no progress to report in the hostage standoff at a Louisiana jail where
                  Cuban inmates have held the warden and two corrections officers at
                  knifepoint since Monday.

                  Authorities on Wednesday tried to calm the rebellious Cuban inmates who
                  said they have run out of patience with deportation proceedings, want to be
                  released from the St. Martin Parish jail and allowed to leave the United
                  States.

                  A handful of protesters gathered outside the jail in support of the inmates'
                  demand for freedom. The demonstrators carried signs reading "Free My
                  Cuban Brothers" and "Free The Cubans."

                  As the negotiations dragged on over three days, authorities remained
                  tight-lipped about the situation. But FBI spokeswoman Kriss Fortunato did
                  say the fact that the lines of communication remained open was encouraging.

                  'We're not part of this!'

                  As many as four inmates have joined the original group of five, Sheriff's
                  Capt. Audrey Thibodeaux said late Tuesday. The additions apparently came
                  from a group of about 50 Cubans in control of a jail section near the hostage
                  area.

                  Earlier in the day, inmates broke two thick glass windows to hang out white
                  flags. People on the street outside could hear them shouting, "Let us out of
                  here!" and, "We're not part of this! Where is the FBI?"

                  Twenty-nine prisoners who apparently want nothing to do with the rebellion
                  were loaded onto a bus and a van outside the jail and transferred to another
                  facility at their request, officials said. A total of about 70 inmates in the 160-
                  prisoner facility have been moved from the jail since the standoff began.

                  The jail, a two-story building in downtown St. Martinville, is surrounded by
                  SWAT teams wearing body armor and armed with assault rifles and
                  shotguns.

                  Two male, 1 female hostages

                  Authorities said they believe the hostages -- two men and a woman -- are
                  being treated well and no injuries have been reported.

                  Officials would not comment on a radio report that, shortly after the uprising,
                  the inmates set a 72-hour deadline before they would kill a hostage. That
                  deadline would expire late Thursday.

                  Warden Todd Louvierre and guards Jolie Sonnier and Brandon Boudreaux
                  have been held since Monday, when they were grabbed as five inmates left
                  an exercise area. A fourth hostage, guard Mac Wiltz, was released after six
                  hours of negotiations.

                  The prisoners allowed CNN affiliate KLFY inside the facility Tuesday. The
                  two corrections officers appeared weary, handcuffed to their chairs and their
                  legs shackled. Two men in orange jumpsuits stood nearby, one holding a
                  knife with a 6-inch blade taped to his wrist; in the other hand, he held a
                  walkie-talkie.

                  The original five hostage-takers have been identified as Jonne Ponte, Juan
                  Miranda, Roberto Grana Villar, Gerado Santana of Miami and Elisalte Orta
                  of Sacramento, California.

                 Prisoners' lives in limbo

                   The siege has underscored once more the fate of hundreds of
                  Cubans locked in legal limbo in U.S. prisons.

                  "Every time there's a riot the issue comes up," said Gary Leshaw, an
                  Atlanta lawyer who acts as an advocate for Cuban detainees.

                  U.S. officials have refused to say why the Cubans, who fled their own
                  country, are being held or for how long.

                  But State Department spokesman James Foley in Washington said the
                  Cubans cannot be freed because of their pasts. Cuba will not accept them,
                  and the United States does not want them on the streets.

                  The lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba often
                  leaves so-called undeportable detainees behind bars for years.

                  Four of the five Cubans who started the rebellion were among a group being
                  held for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, pending deportation or
                  other action.

                  Officials described it as a typical arrangement like those with county jails
                  around the nation. The fifth man was being held on state charges, the INS
                  said.

                  St. Martinville, a town of 7,000 in southern Louisiana, is about 115 miles
                  west of New Orleans.

                  It is about 50 miles from Oakdale, where a federal deportation center was
                  burned by 1,000 Cuban inmates in 1987. Twenty-eight employees were
                  taken hostage there and held for eight days before being released without
                  harm.

                      Correspondent Ed Garsten and the Associated Press contributed to this report.