Cuba: Gusanos' Paradise

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The queue stretched on for blocks outside the Cuban Ministry of Justice in downtown Havana—people of all ages and descriptions seeking birth certificates, marriage licenses, exit permits, any document that would enable them to leave their Communist homeland. Other hopeful lines formed at the Interior Ministry, at the former U.S. embassy, now administered by a small Swiss staff, and at cable offices, where Cubans by the thousands were either sending word to friends and relatives in Miami or awaiting word back.

Washington was waiting, too—for a yes or no from Fidel Castro to President Johnson's speech offering a haven to any and all Cubans who want to get out. At 2 a.m. one morning last week, a telephone call came into the State Department from the Swiss in Havana. Castro, who had made the original refugee suggestion himself (TIME cover, Oct. 8), was now willing to negotiate a formula for the evacuation.

The dictator agreed that top priority should go to refugees who have immediate relatives in the U.S. He also accepted "in principle" the suggestion that both Havana and Washington discourage any ragtag exodus of Cubans outside the framework of a formal U.S.-Cuban agreement, although up to now Castro did not seem to care how they got across. One point Castro avoided was whether he would give his 50,000 political prisoners "second priority" as the U.S. suggested. Nor did he reply to the U.S. offer of air or sea transportation or go into the matter of what ports to use, aside from the small village of Camarioca, or whether the International Red Cross could help the refugees on the Cuban end of the line.

Power of Persuasion. If and when Havana and Washington agree on a formula, the U.S. hopes to begin shuttling refugees from Cuba within ten days. Until then, the U.S. is doing its best to keep Cuban exiles from grabbing every little outboard and runabout in Florida and dashing across the stormy, shark-infested Straits of Florida on rescue missions. All last week a doz en Coast Guard helicopters and patrol boats prowled the area with orders to use "every means of persuasion" to keep the exiles from taking things into their own hands. The U.S. even threatened them with civil or criminal prosecution (up to $2,000 fine and five years in jail), if they brought in "undocumented aliens." But the U.S. has not yet had the heart to force anyone back or take legal action.

Actually, by week's end only a few boats—23 in all, carrying some 495 refugees—had put into Florida since Castro first opened the door two weeks before. Most of them were their own best proof of the need for a well-organized evacuation plan. After gusty squalls whipped the Straits last week, the U.S. Coast Guard picked up half a dozen floundering exile craft with scores aboard.