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CUBA: EXILE LEADERS TURN ON PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR PERMITTING RETURN OF HIJACKERS TO CUBA FOR TRIAL.

Article Excerpt
The repatriation to Cuba of 12 alleged hijackers last month has set off the most vigorous debate on US immigration from Cuba since the Elian Gonzalez case (see NotiCen, 2000-07- 13). Because immigration is a core element of US Cuba policy, the debate has taken in the whole of that policy.

On July 21, the Coast Guard returned the 12 alleged hijackers to Cuba along with three guards who said they were forced onto the Gaviota 16, a government surveying boat, when it was hijacked July 15 from the port of Nuevitas, Camaguey Province.

The repatriation came shortly after the Cuban government promised not to impose the death penalty on the alleged hijackers as it had done in April with the execution of three men convicted of hijacking a Havana harbor ferry (see NotiCen, 2003-05-22). An official note from Cuba said that Cuban prosecutors would ask for no more than 10-year sentences because of the "exceptional circumstances."

Six of the 12 suspects were released on their return to Cuba. The other six were sentenced to terms ranging from seven to 10 years.

The repatriation is widely interpreted as a major shift in US policy in such matters. Until a Key West jury convicted Adelmis Wilson Gonzalez of air piracy for the March 31 hijacking of a passenger plane, hijackers were usually...

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