U.S. law cited in sea disaster

From Herald Wire Services

 HAVANA -- President Fidel Castro of Cuba led a procession Tuesday of thousands of people wearing black T-shirts to protest against the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act and to mourn 13 children who died last week in a failed effort to reach the United States by boat.

 Wearing his traditional green fatigues, Castro arrived at José Martí Square outside the U.S. Interests Section in central Havana to deliver a speech at the end of the
 ceremony.

 An editorial in the official Communist Party daily Granma on Tuesday morning summoned 300,000 Cubans to the event, which coincides with the 130th anniversary of the execution of eight Cuban medical students by Spanish troops.

 Condemning the drowning of the youngsters, Granma said that the smuggling attempt was ``a monstrous event, spawned by impunity and tolerance, that led numerous Cuban children to an atrocious death.''

 The protest is "an expression of mourning for the innocent children who, in the horror of scenes that may have been indescribable, saw their short and happy lives
 shattered as a consequence of the criminal [immigration] policy conducted against our country for many years,'' Granma said.

 The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act grants Cubans who enter the United States by any means immediate residence.

 The Cuban government, which maintains the law encourages illegal emigration to the U.S., refers to it as ``the killer law'' every time it blames it for the death of Cubans who take to the sea in rafts or pay smugglers to take them to South Florida in speedboats.

 U.S. Coast Guard crews on Wednesday stopped searching the Florida Straits for the 30 Cubans, whose boat capsized in rough seas last weekend. No survivors have been found.

 Family members of the migrants reported the group left Cuba in a speedboat on Nov. 16.

 Monday evening, on the Cuban government's Round Table television program, moderator Randy Alonso accused Cuban exiles ``of trying to use the deaths of Cuban citizens . . . for their cruel political games.''

 Havana first publicly mentioned the reports on Sunday evening, warning the missing migrants' relatives not to have false hopes about their loved ones' fate.

                                    © 2001