• by IPS Correspondents (panama city)
• Thursday, December 08, 1994
• Inter Press Service

PANAMA CITY, Dic 08 (IPS) - Violent clashes with U.S. soldiers once again occurred when a group of Cubans rioted in the refugee camps built on the banks of the Panama Canal by the U.S. government.

Spokeswoman for the U.S. Southern Command, Liliana Levi, said Thursday that one refugee and one soldier were wounded during the riot that lasted from 21.00 GMT on Wednesday to 02.00 GMT on Thursday.

Several of the 150 refugees who took part in the disturbances "forcibly took control of" and crashed three armoured vehicles belonging to the U.S. army, while others launched "a rain of rocks" against the soldiers, Levi said.

Refugee Antonio Giovanni said the Cubans protested because "the U.S. army is deceiving us" about possibilities of going to the United States: "One day they tell us the children will be sent to the United States and the next day they give us another version."

Compliance with a U.S. legal ruling which ordered children and the elderly to be transferred from refugee camps in Panama and the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba to the United States has been delayed, according to the Cubans.

In late October 32 refugees were detained and sentenced to up to 150 days of confinement for a similar violent protest.

The 8,600 refugees housed in Panama were brought from Guantanamo, where some 17,000 Cubans are living in camps after having fled the Caribbean island nation in August in precarious rafts seeking to reach Miami.

Giavanni said the incidents occurred after a U.S. army anti- riot squad attempted to stop several refugees from pulling down the fence surrounding the camps.

"The anti-riot squad came to the camp, but people threw rocks at them and several soldiers were removed with injured heads and legs," the refugee said.

Meanwhile, Levi said the protest "was a product of the frustration" suffered by the Cubans who were unable to reach the United States after their perilous journeys.

An association of Guantanamo and Panama-based refugees is demanding that the U.S. government take them in under the "Cuban Adjustment Bill" passed in 1967 by Congress.

According to the bill, any Cuban who reaches U.S. shores and goes to an immigration post has the right to become a permanent resident of the United States.

However, the Cubans who fled in August failed to reach U.S. shores, being picked up at sea and taken to Guantanamo and Panama.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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