
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 31, 1994                   TAG: 9409010066
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S.: CUBA RELEASING CONVICTS

The Clinton administration has picked up ``credible reports'' that Cuban authorities have released some prisoners in recent days, allowing them to join the boat people fleeing the island, officials said Tuesday.

The officials said the issue will be taken up Thursday when delegations from the United States and Cuba meet in New York to discuss ways of dealing with the continuing outflow of Cubans.

One official said there are about ``100 suspect cases'' among the more than 15,000 Cubans who are being detained at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba. But, the official said, all appear to be minimum-security cases involving prisoners serving time for trying to flee the island or stealing food.

The officials, asking not to be identified, said it is not clear whether the administration will try to have these Cubans repatriated. The spokesman at the Cuban diplomatic mission here was not available for comment on the U.S. allegations.

Cuban prisoners are routinely tattooed between the thumb and forefinger, making them easily identifiable by U.S. officials.

Cuban authorities angered U.S. officials 14 years ago when they allowed thousands of prisoners and mental patients to join the Mariel boatlift. Many of the prisoners had been guilty of violent crimes.

Such persons cannot legally be admitted to the United States, and Cuba has allowed more than 1,100 of these Cubans to be repatriated. But the Clinton administration is seeking the return of an additional 4,000, and will raise the issue in this week's talks.

Former Foreign Minister Ricardo Alarcon will represent Cuba at the talks, the first phase of which will be held at the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

Alarcon was President Fidel Castro's most trusted foreign policy adviser until he left diplomatic life last year to become president of the National Assembly or parliament.

A State Department official expressed hope that the appointment of a close confidant of Castro indicates a seriousness of purpose by Cuba heading into the talks.

Career diplomat Michael Skol, who will head the American delegation, said the U.S. goal in the talks is to ``end the rafter outflow and to increase the possibility for legal, safe migration.''

In other developments:

In Florida, leaders of Cuban exile paramilitary groups called for a repeat of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 - this time, with better help from the United States.

``Fidel Castro came into power with bullets. He must be taken out with bullets,'' Tony Bryant, head of Comandos L, said Tuesday. ``We want to see him dead.''

Bryant demanded that the United States revoke its Neutrality Act, which prohibits launching military action from U.S. territory against a country with which the United States is at peace.

Honduras said Tuesday it will accept 5,000 Cubans blocked from entering the United States.

The refugees would be placed on the Islas del Cisne, small islands in the Atlantic Ocean that were used by the CIA to train Nicaraguan rebels in the early 1980s.

Panama, Venezuela, Mexico and several Caribbean countries have said they might accept Cubans. Some had received assurances of increased U.S. aid.

by CNB