THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1980. Cubans who want to leave

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1980. Cubans who want to leave

The Cubans who are crowding into the grounds of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana present a spectacle both astonishing and pitiful. The estimated 10,000 living in a small area without adequate sanitation run risks of disease as they wait for countries to accept them and for permission to leave Cuba. President Castro will probably let them go when countries are prepared to take them, though he wants others who burst through a police cordon to be returned to the Cuban authorities.

He may decide to keep the 10,000 there, causing havoc for the Peruvians until some in the Peruvian Embassy and others in the Venezuelan Embassy are handed over. This would be a cruel action. Having temporarily lifted the barriers to emigration he should allow those who chose to emigrate to go, and not use them as hostages for others seeking asylum.

The reason for the crowding into the embassy grounds is because it offers a way to emigrate. The 10,000 may be described as seeking political asylum but their action does not appear to have been motivated by a fear of persecution. It is rather that they believe that they can make a better life for themselves elsewhere.

Cuba has 10 million people and it is not surprising that at least 10,000 would like to leave. It is the manner in which they have to go about emigrating that is astonishing. President Castro would be making a humanitarian gesture if he offered other arrangements for those who want to emigrate. By allowing those seeking political asylum to leave the country he is resolving a long-standing issue between Cuba and various other countries, notably Peru and Venezuela. He has reason to have regard for them because they more than any other countries of the region, have sought a reconciliation between the United States and Cuba.

To some extent the fact that so many want to leave is an indictment of life in Cuba. President Castro is aware of this and plans a demonstration to mark the nineteenth anniversary of the attempted Bay of Pigs invasion. Cuba has also shown itself aware of the propaganda impact of the spectacle at the embassy by accusing those members of the Andean Group who have offered to take the Cubans

— Peru, Chile t Bolivia, Columbia, and; Ecuador — of being unable to offer health, education, food, and work to them. Although - unemployment is high, in Cuba, the necessities of life and education are ostensibly available. The Cuban Revolution has provided for basic needs, but only under a stringent rationing system and within an economy heavily dependent on Russian subsidies and equipment from the European communist bloc countries. The political oppression of a Marxist state may motivate some of those who want to leave. Others are likely to have been influenced by the fact that their eyes have been opened to the way a lot of the rest of the world lives through the recent great increase in tourism in Cuba. Cubans observed with some jealousy that visitors did not have to queue to get food, that they could buy many items in Cuba which were not for sale to those who held only pesos, and that tourist buses took people around while Cubans, limited to 10 gallons of petrol a month struggled to keep their pre - Revolution cars on the road. It could be argued that the conflict is apparent because of the increasing affluence of Cubans. In fact the Revolution, which provided the basics, has not provided enough for the rising expectations.

The offers to place the Cubans have not been coming quickly. The United States has been the most generous, undertaking to take 3500. Peru will take 1000, Spain 500, and others a few hundreds. Unless the numbers grow it seems probable that the 10,000 will be placed in time. The migration will cause problems. Most of the Cubans going to the United States will almost certainly settle in Florida, where there is already a large Cuban population in exile. If Cubans start to migrate by boats in larger numbers they will be deeply resented ,in Florida where-com-petition for jobs is intense. Haitians have been leaving their island in boats for the United States in steadily increasing numbers: 1800 in 1978, 2500 in 1979, and 2300 in the first three months of this year. At present American attention is elsewhere in the world, but the problems in Cuba and Haiti, and a host of problems throughout nearby countries, will eventually cause a crisis in the Caribbean that cannot be ignored.