Troops Fly to Quell Cuban Riot : Prisons Director Still Expects No ‘Invasive Action’

The Pentagon said today that it has dispatched a team of Army Special Operations troops to the besieged Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where rioting Cuban inmates facing deportation held 93 hostages and demanded freedom in return for their captives.

Negotiations continued in Atlanta and Oakdale, La., where 1,000 Cubans took over a federal detention center Saturday.

Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Quinlan told a Washington news conference today that authorities will “take no invasive action” at the prisons unless the inmates harm the hostages, but he would not comment on the forces from the Pentagon.

The Cubans in Atlanta seized 25 more hostages early today by taking over the prison hospital and released one for unknown reasons, bringing the total to 93, officials said.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it flew specially trained “military experts” to Atlanta to advise on putting down the revolt.

Pentagon officials who asked not to be named told the Associated Press that the soldiers were secretly mobilized Tuesday night at Ft. Bragg, N.C., and flown south to Atlanta.

100 Army Specialists

The sources said the team consists of about 100 Army specialists--many of them trained in counterterrorism techniques--who had been drawn from various Special Operations units.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Shea declined to comment on the number of advisers or their duties for fear it might endanger the lives of the hostages.

Asked if the military is prepared to go beyond just giving advice, Shea said, “I’m not prepared to address that.”

The sources who talked to the Associated Press insisted, however, that the soldiers will not be used to mount any type of assault on the prison complex.

“The Justice Department still believes that this situation can be resolved through negotiations,” one official said. “But if things got worse and there was an assault, it would not be conducted by the military.

“We’re there to lend some advice and possibly some equipment. . . . But this is a civilian show. We’re not going to conduct an assault.”

Hostage’s Message

Earlier, one hostage in Atlanta was overheard in a radio transmission urging authorities not to rush the prison for fear the captives would be killed.

The Cubans, saying they do not trust Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III’s pledge not to deport them immediately to Cuba, are demanding U.S. citizenship and immunity from prosecution in the prison uprising.

Progress in negotiations was reported at the detention center in Oakdale, where 1,000 Cubans virtually destroyed the prison. Inmates issued their response to the offer of a moratorium on their deportation by saying they would accept the prospect of going to a country other than Cuba.

Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), who arrived at the fire-gutted medium-security prison as the fifth day of negotiations began, said, “The idea of (the Cubans) going to another country is good.” Breaux would not name a particular country or give the specifics of the response made by the Cubans.

In Cuba, a high-ranking Cuban official said today that the government has offered amnesty to returned Mariel emigres.

“They will be exonerated of illegal activities done before they left Cuba,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ricardo Alarcon said in a Radio Reloj broadcast monitored in Miami.