Mass exodus from Cuba?

The Miami Herald is reporting on a new $18 million facility that the US Government is building at Gitmo in anticipation of a “mass exodus” of up to a half-million Cubans after the death of Castro.

“The U.S. Navy base, on the eastern tip of Cuba, apparently would be used as a shelter of last resort if the volume of Cubans interdicted at sea overwhelms the U.S. policy known as “wet foot/dry foot.”

 

Under that policy, Cubans who make it to U.S. territory are allowed to remain. Those intercepted at sea are interviewed aboard Coast Guard vessels and most are repatriated to Cuba. A few who have been found to credibly risk persecution if returned to Cuba have been taken to Guantánamo for more interviews while U.S. officials arrange for their resettlement in third nations.

 

U.S. officials refused to say whether the wet foot/dry foot policy will be changed in case of an exodus, since such an announcement might prompt many Cubans to leave.

 

For years, migrants captured during surges ended up in tent camps at Guantánamo on a bluff called Radio Range, on the larger Windward side of the base.”

Previous large migrations of Cubans were in 1980 “mariel boat-lift”, and 1994 when some 50,000 Cubans and Haitians sought refuge, with most of the Haitians being returned to Haiti. It was a point on the learning curve of President Bill Clinton who initially encouraged the migration, but later returned the Haitians, coining the phrase “words mean things.”

And, in a liberal-exploding-head sidenote, Boing-Boing is reporting that the new facility is being constructed by ……………………………………………………………...wait for it………………………………………………………………………………..Halliburton!