From News Services
Wednesday, December 8, 1999; Page A23
HAVANA, Dec. 7—U.S.-Cuba relations, already strained by a custody
dispute over a 6-year-old boy, grew more tense today when Cuba
demanded the United States return the crew of a fishing boat it says was
hijacked.
The Albacora allegedly was hijacked at knifepoint early Monday by
Cubans desperate to reach the United States. Two crew members were
wounded, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
After Cuba alerted U.S. authorities, the Coast Guard seized the boat with
eight people aboard. U.S. authorities said they had not yet decided what
to
do with the alleged hijackers.
Meanwhile, the State Department said immigration officials would seek to
interview the father of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old who was found Nov.
25 clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and stepfather
died after a powerboat loaded with 14 people sank during an attempt to
reach the United States. Elian, one of three survivors, is in the custody
of
relatives in Florida.
The Cuban government has charged that the U.S. failure to return Elian
to
his father in Cuba violates accords signed in 1994.
"U.S. authorities on one hand promise to prevent illegal immigration under
the migration accords signed with our country," the Foreign Ministry said
today. "On the other, they promote it with the stupid Cuban Adjustment
Act, which automatically grants residence to any Cuban who arrives in
U.S. territory."
The boy's father said Elian was taken out of the country without his
knowledge.
The communist government has promised to hold mass street
demonstrations in front of the U.S. interests section in Havana until the
boy
returns.
The State Department says Elian's fate should be decided by a Florida
court. But the Cuban government says it does not trust the Florida courts
to be impartial because of the state's large anti-Castro exile community.
"They can have all the demonstrations they want," said a State Department
official. "In the United States we have laws we have to follow and uphold."
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