Commandos Dispatched to Prison : Official Vows No Raid if Hostages Are Not Harmed

Army commandos have been sent to the besieged federal penitentiary here, but a U.S. official said Wednesday that no effort will be made to storm the prison unless rioting Cuban inmates harm any of their 94 hostages.

That kind of tense standoff also continued at the federal detention center in Oakdale, La., where another 28 hostages are being held by prisoners who have mutinied rather than face return to Cuba.

The 100 Army specialists were flown to Atlanta from Ft. Bragg, N.C. They are trained in explosives and diversionary attacks, but officials said they are present only to serve as advisers.

“Any kind of assault, if it comes, will be by federal law enforcement people,” a Pentagon spokesman said.

FBI Sends Rescue Team

The FBI dispatched its specially trained, 50-man hostage rescue team to Atlanta on Tuesday. There, they were joined by an additional 50 members of the federal marshals’ Special Operations Group.

Just before 9 p.m., prisoners apparently set a diversionary fire as they attempted to cut through a galvanized fence and gain access to another cellblock, but were driven back by federal officers.

Presumably, the prisoners were trying to get more space to occupy--and make it more difficult to attack those cellblocks they already control.

Minutes after the incident, reports circulated across police scanners, advising officials that an attempt to take Cellblock B had been repulsed.

Vexing Negotiations

“We have control of B cell,” officials in the guard tower were informed by officers on the scene.

Despite Wednesday night’s events and vexing negotiations--hampered by the Cubans’ splintered leadership--prison officials said they still hope for a peaceful end to the revolt, which is in its fourth day in Atlanta, its sixth in Oakdale.

The Louisiana situation appears less dangerous than Atlanta’s. “We think the Oakdale leadership has crystallized,” J. Michael Quinlan, director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, said at a press conference in Washington.

Asked how federal officials at both facilities allowed the current situation to develop, he replied: “There’s no need to second-guess what should have been done. We can do that at a later time.”

Pressed on how long the crisis will be permitted to go on before an assault is ordered, Quinlan said: “My patience is endless. I think that the situation will go on so long as the hostages are unharmed.”

The 1,000 Cubans at Oakdale rioted a day after the State Department announced an agreement with Havana, calling for the return of about 2,500 inmates who had come to America from Mariel in a 1980 boat lift.

Two days later, the 1,400 Cuban inmates in Atlanta took over much of the 85-year-old federal prison here, torching many of the buildings behind the thick, 17-foot-high walls.

The death toll stands at one. An Atlanta prisoner was shot in the head. The bullet was apparently fired by a law enforcement officer, although that is still not certain, a Justice Department official said.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Wednesday that President Reagan is “very concerned” about the explosive situations.

Fitzwater said the President feels “all contingency measures” should be taken in the event of continuing violence, but refused to specify any plans.

“As we go through this, we face a situation of daily, hourly and momentary changes,” he said.

A Dire Situation

In Atlanta, the situation remained dire. Late Tuesday night, the inmates gained control of the penitentiary hospital, where 25 hospital employees had barricaded themselves in the upper floor of a two-story building.

In the morning, the Cubans apparently began a search for food. They worried about sharpshooters. One of the hostages--a prison guard--was overheard expressing his fears in a radio transmission monitored outside the prison.

“They are going to kill us,” he warned in a quavering voice. “The only thing they want to do is go in the warehouse and get some food for us. . . . “

He pleaded for caution.

“They are ready to die, die right now,” he said. “Please, don’t do anything stupid.”

He said the hostages are being treated well.

“Believe me, we’ve got some respect in there,” he said. “But if y’all do anything stupid, they’re going to kill us.”

Later in the day, the inmates asked FBI assault teams not to shoot at them as they moved from building to building in search of other dead bodies. They found none.

The prisoners, as well as their hostages, are reportedly spread throughout the prison, making an assault more difficult.

It is unclear what percentage of the Cuban inmates enthusiastically support the takeover. Throughout Wednesday, dozens of Cuban prisoners gave themselves up. Observers put the total at more than 210.

The men were manacled and marched down the front steps to buses. Some pressed their hands together in gestures of thanks, apparently glad to be away from the tense situation.

One federal official, met by prisoners who wanted to quit the rebellion, radioed his boss asking what to do. “We don’t have to ‘cuff them, just search them, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, basically, just get the search thing going,” was the answer.

Each time a group of inmates emerged through the prison’s large front entrance, commotion broke out across the street. “Libertad!” people shouted.

Several families of the prisoners--overcome with exhaustion and fear--have been waiting for a resolution of the siege.

One woman is Maria Silva Rodriguez, 25, who has camped on a lawn for two days with her three small children, waiting for any glimpse of Ignazio Rodriguez, her husband.

Some of her friends thought they saw him come out. “Is it him? Is it him?” she cried out. She did not see him. She wept.

The others assured her Ignazio had left the revolt. She carried her toddler daughter and ran. Her two little boys followed behind, dragging yellow cardboard posters proclaiming: “Free All Prisoner Immigrants.”

Finally, as the bus passed, she saw him and appeared to faint. “He looks OK,” she said a moment later.

In Louisiana, Mark K. Sheehan, a Justice Department spokesman who arrived Wednesday evening in Oakdale from Washington, confirmed that talks had broken off Tuesday afternoon and did not resume until 6 p.m. Wednesday.

According to Sheehan, four inmates have emerged as leaders who “seem to speak for the majority of people inside.”

Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), who has been monitoring the negotiations, told reporters Wednesday morning that “progress is being made,” noting that late Tuesday night the inmates finally presented federal officials with a written set of demands. Sheehan said the document contained seven demands, but refused to specify their content.

Breaux said the Cubans had suggested deportation to some country other than Cuba. “From this senator’s perspective, I would be happy if another country would accept them,” he said.

‘Looking for Assurances’

Asked about the Cubans’ response to Atty. Gen Edwin Meese III’s offer to halt deportations, Oakdale’s warden, J. R. Johnson, said the inmates “are looking for assurances that any commitments will be filled. . . . I think they want to believe it.”

The warden added that the inmates appeared calmer but noted that “they go bananas sometimes when there is any unusual activity around the perimeter and they don’t know what’s happening.”

Johnson said the inmates “bring out a hostage to remind us” whenever they become nervous.”

Hundreds of sharpshooters, police and National Guardsmen, backed by armored personnel carriers, helicopters and attack dogs, surround the minimum security compound set in the pine woods of southwestern Louisiana.

Oakdale Police Chief Virgil Chamberlain Jr., whose 23-year-old son, Webster, is one of the prison security guards being held hostage, expressed hope that the standoff will end peacefully.

“So far they’ve kept their word about taking care of the prisoners (hostages) and we haven’t done anything foolish,” Chamberlain said. The chief, who has kept a round-the-clock vigil at the prison since the uprising began, said an inmate paraded Chamberlain’s son out Tuesday night, the young man’s hands tied. Chamberlain said he saw his son through binoculars. “This is very, very touchy situation. The least little thing could set off hardship and hurt,” he said. Chamberlain expressed sympathy toward the Cubans holding his son hostage, saying: “None of us wants to go to a communist country. I believe we have to be patient and wait this thing out. They want freedom, and to be fairly treated.”

The inmates, who have access to the compound’s machine shop, appeared to be armed with crude, homemade weapons, such as two-foot-long spears and clubs spiked with nails. Some carried the lids of trash cans for shields and many could be seen with portable radios. The inmates also ransacked the commissary, where, according to officials, at least 1,000 pounds of rice and roughly 40,000 pounds of meat were stored.

“They’ve been doing a lot of cooking,” said Ray Valdez, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman who estimated “they could probably go three to four weeks, provided they ration it.”

Although the facility’s gas and running water were cut off after the takeover, prison officials have supplied the inmates with generators to provide electricity. “We wanted them to watch TV. We wanted them to see the families pleading for the release of the hostages,” Valdez said.

Barry Bearak reported from Atlanta and Tamara Jones from Oakdale, La. Staff writers Douglas Jehl in Atlanta, David Lauter in Oakdale and Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington also contributed to this story.