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- <text id=92TT0059>
- <title>
- Jan. 13, 1992: American Notes:Escapes
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Jan. 13, 1992 The Recession:How Bad Is It?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 21
- American Notes
- ESCAPES
- Day Trip to Freedom
- </hdr><body>
- <p> In 1980 Fidel Castro sent a horde of Cuban criminals to the
- U.S. in the Mariel boatlift. Now some of Cuba's best and
- brightest are also heading for the U.S.--by escaping. Last week
- Cuban air force lieutenant Jerman Pompa Gonzales, 24, commandeered
- a troop transport helicopter formerly used to ferry tourists
- around the island and flew it to Florida with 33 friends and
- relatives aboard. On landing at Tamiami Airport near Miami,
- Pompa and company requested political asylum, which is almost
- always granted. Pompa enjoyed a reunion with his friend Major
- Orestes Lorenzo, who flew a MiG-23 to Key West last March.
- </p>
- <p> More defectors are expected soon because a cutoff in aid
- from the former Soviet Union has triggered severe shortages of
- fuel and food. A beleaguered Castro has responded to the
- murmuring of dissidents with a brutal crackdown. In recent
- months prominent artists, musicians and intellectuals have fled.
- Even young military officers, says Miami anti-Castro activist
- Francisco Hernandez, "are completely and totally disillusioned."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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