Emigration Cuba

Cuban President Fidel Castro was quoted Saturday as saying that history would prove him right in starting and maintaining an orthodox communist system in Cuba in defiance of the United States. Separately, a senior Cuban official said Havana has no plans to move toward a Western-style democracy but is willing to allow any of its citizens who wish to emigrate to the United States to do so. "Socialism is a voluntary task. . . .

Cuban President Fidel Castro was quoted Saturday as saying that history would prove him right in starting and maintaining an orthodox communist system in Cuba in defiance of the United States. Separately, a senior Cuban official said Havana has no plans to move toward a Western-style democracy but is willing to allow any of its citizens who wish to emigrate to the United States to do so. "Socialism is a voluntary task. . . .

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising Republican star often discussed as a future White House hopeful, says he did not embellish for political advantage the story of his parents' emigration from Cuba. Rubio issued a statement late Thursday responding to a Washington Post story that asserted that Rubio's parents left Cuba more than two years before Fidel Castro came to power. Rubio, who was born in the U.S. more a decade later, has described his parents as exiles who fled Castro's communist government.

A sense of possible failure engulfed the U.S.-Cuban talks Sunday as the Clinton Administration acknowledged that the negotiations could end without agreement on a formula to stop the streams of Cuban rafters intent on finding refuge in the United States.

Luis Abreu tried to express the bittersweet emotions building inside him as he waited Sunday for his youngest son to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport from Fidel Castro's Cuba. "This is both a happy and sad moment for us," he said. Miriam, his wife, wiped tears from her eyes and nodded. The couple left their island nation in March 1996, winners of visas issued in an annual lottery by the U.S. State Department for legal emigration from Cuba.

Usually the boats are no more than a couple of inner tubes, lashed together with rope and topped by a piece of canvas. Sometimes they are less than that. Last month, six people made it in a blown-up swimming pool float, paddling with plastic oars. "Most of the craft they're using to get here are not something the average person would use to go out on a lake," says Coast Guard Petty Officer Joe Dye. "That tells you they're somewhat desperate."

Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Sunday sent a signal outlining a possible U.S. deal with Cuba on migration, saying the Clinton Administration may allow more Cubans to enter the United States through legal immigration if Fidel Castro agrees to stop his citizens from going to sea in rafts.