by Douglas Stanglin; Linda Robinson; David Bowermaster; Gary Cohen; Thomas Toch; Bruce Auster
Less than a month after Washington began accepting visa applications under its new immigration policy for Cuba, more than 100,000 Cubans have flooded the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Their hope: getting one of some 20,000 visas that will be given out in 1995. The new policy was worked out with Havana in September in an effort to halt the flood of Cuban boat people into the United States. More than 45,000 refugees left Cuba during the summer exodus. But the wave of visa applicants has con vinced U.S. officials that deteriorating economic and political conditions still are putting extreme pressure on Cubans to leave their island nation. Indeed, both U.S. and Cuban officials estimate that as many as 2 million Cubans would flee if they could. To avoid touching off another exodus of boat people, Washington is determined to deny entry to most of the 30,000 detainees in camps at Guantanamo Bay and in Panama, where hundreds of frustrated Cubans rioted recently. U.S. officials say that with only a few exceptions for humanitarian reasons, the Cubans first must return home and then apply for visas. But with applications soaring, that option looks increasingly uncertain.
