Castro announces Mariel Boat lift 1980
On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime announces that all Cubans
wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of
Mariel west of Havana, launching the Mariel Boat lift. The first of
125,000 Cuban refugees from Mariel reached Florida the next day.
The boatlift was precipitated by housing and job shortages caused
bythe ailing Cuban economy, leading to simmering internal tensions on
the island. On April 1, Hector Sanyustiz and four others drove a bus
through a fence at the Peruvian embassy and were granted political
asylum. Cuban guards on the street opened fire. One guard was killed in
the crossfire.
The Cuban government demanded the five be returned for trial in the
dead guard’s death. But when the Peruvian government refused, Castro
withdrew his guards from the embassy on Good Friday, April 4. By Easter
Sunday, April 6, some 10,000 Cubans crowded into the lushly landscaped
gardens at the embassy requesting asylum. Other embassies, including
those of Spain and Costa Rica, agreed to take a small number of people.
But suddenly, two weeks later, Castro proclaimed that the port of Mariel
would be opened to anyone wishing to leave, as long as they had someone
to pick them up. Cuban exiles in the United Statesrushed to hire boats
in Miami and Key West and rescue their relatives.
In all, 125,000 Cubans fled to U.S. shores in about 1,700 boats,
creating large waves of people that overwhelmed the U.S. Coast guard.
Cuban guards had packed boat after boat, without considering safety,
making some of the overcrowded boats barely seaworthy.
Twenty-sevenmigrants died, including 14 on an overloaded boat that
capsized on May 17.
The boatlift also began to have negative political implications for U.S.President Jimmy Carter.When
it was discovered that a number of the exiles had been released from
Cuban jails and mental health facilities, many were placed in refugee
camps while others were held in federal prisons to undergo deportation
hearings. Of the 125,000 “Marielitos,” as the refugees came to be known,
who landed in Florida, more than 1,700 were jailed and another 587 were
detained until they could find sponsors.
The exodus was finally ended by mutual agreement between theU.S. and Cuban governments in October 1980.
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Civil War
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Cold War
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Crime
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Disaster
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General Interest
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Hollywood
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Literary
- 1841 First detective story is published
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Music
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Old West
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Presidential
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Sports
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Vietnam War
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World War I
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World War II
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