#262: Cuba Sends Home 90 U.S.-Bound Haitian Boat-People (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Cuba Sends Home 90 U.S.-Bound Haitian Boat-People 
6:32 p.m Jul 30, 1999 Eastern 

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba repatriated Friday 90 Haitian boat-people who
were stranded on the island three weeks ago when their vessel ran into
trouble on its way to the United States. The Cuban government, aided by
the Red Cross, flew the 76 men, 11 women and three children from the
eastern city of Guantanamo to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.  
State news agency Prensa Latina said the Haitians reached the coast of
Moa in Holguin province after ``problems with the precarious boat'' in
which they were traveling. The agency  noted that Haiti is the poorest
country in the Americas and said the boat-people were trying to get to
the United States in ``search of sustenance.'' Cuban authorities said
the would-be immigrants to the United States turned up in Cuba on July
7, but did not give details of what happened to the boat.  The
repatriation was the second from Cuba to Haiti this year after 133
people were sent back in March. Some 15,000  Haitians have been returned
in the same way over the last decade. Haiti, which shares the island of
Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is separated from Cuba by 48
miles of Caribbean sea.