Deal to Free 26 Hostages in Louisiana Fails

A secret deal to free 26 hostages held by rebellious Cuban inmates collapsed at the last minute Friday, and officials held out little hope of a swift end to the stalemate.

Negotiators for the government and inmates at the Federal Detention Center here shook hands on a deal Thanksgiving night. But when they met to sign the agreement Friday, the roughly 1,000 Cubans apparently balked.

Of the 28 hostages seized last Saturday, one was released Thursday night and a second was evacuated Friday after being attacked by a mental patient.

‘No Ultimatums’

The remaining 26 hostages, although not seen Friday, were unharmed, and “no ultimatums” were issued, according to Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), who has been monitoring the talks.

At the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, meanwhile, where more than 1,100 other Cuban detainees held 94 hostages, officials adopted a tough new tone Friday after negotiations between inmates and officials broke down without bringing about any progress toward resolution of the five-day-old prison uprising.

Talks between three inmate spokesmen and three prominent Cuban refugees acting as mediators had appeared likely to bring about the release of up to 50 of the Atlanta hostages Thursday night in return for permission for the inmates to hold a news conference. But that proposal was rejected by a majority of the inmates. Those face-to-face talks were not resumed Friday, and there was only intermittent telephone conversation between inmates and FBI negotiators.

Breaux blamed the breakdown in the Louisiana negotiations on dissension within the Cuban ranks.

“The four (Cuban) negotiators have to represent more than 900 inmates--it’s worse than the United Nations,” Breaux said.

The senator also complained that the Cubans kept presenting additional demands.

“The ball is back in their court,” he said. “It’s time they realize that there is only so far we can go as far as offers are concerned.

“I don’t want them to ask for a new house and 40 acres and a tractor,” Breaux said.

The detainees, however, appeared to have a different explanation. After talks broke off, a group of the Cubans paraded around the front of the prison compound with a banner: “U.S. Govt, Please allow us to speak with someone we can trust who understands our lang.”

Language Problems Denied

Federal officials have denied there is any language barrier, although numerous signs displayed throughout the week in the prison yard were written in broken, sometimes almost incomprehensible English. The government’s offer was presented to the inmates in English, and the translators involved in the delicate negotiations all work for the government.

Officials have refused to detail either the Cubans’ demands or the government’s responses.

Breaux said that “the guts” of the deal were amnesty for the riot, a moratorium on deportations to Cuba and individual review of the detainees’ cases.

The breakdown at Oakdale came after a day of high hopes that began with Cuban detainees laying down their makeshift weapons, circling an American flag and joining hands in prayer as their four representatives entered the negotiating room to supposedly sign the agreement.

About 40 minutes later, the four Cuban negotiators left and were seen in a heated discussion with fellow inmates in the burned-out prison yard. The argument ended with one detainee snatching up his weapon and stalking off.

Banner Offers Thanks

A banner was hung from the ruins of a dormitory: “Citizens of U.S. Thank You for Your Help and Prayers. We Do Not Want To Blow It.” Negotiators for the two sides met again briefly. Then the talks ended.

Late Friday, the Cubans put up a new sign demanding “Archbishop San Roman” as a legal representative and “live national press” as a condition for signing an agreement. The reference was apparently to Agustin Roman, the auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Church in Miami.

The Justice Department’s spokesman in Oakdale, Mark K. Sheehan, said, however, that there were “no plans” to involve Bishop Roman in the negotiations and that “there is no time set” for the resumption of talks with the inmates.

Families of the hostages, who spent the morning in preparation for a celebration, spent the afternoon in stunned disappointment. In the church hall, where they have kept a vigil since the siege began, the relatives still clutched bouquets of yellow balloons they had planned to release over this tiny town to mark a homecoming.

“I think it’s heartbreaking for the hostages and for the Cubans, and more so for the families that’s waiting out here,” said Linda Robinson, sister-in-law of one of the hostages.

The families were wracked by “tension, anxiety, hurt and pain,” she said.

Hostage Rescued

The day began on a cooperative note when inmates rescued a hostage who had been stabbed by one of the mental patients incarcerated at the center.

The victim, Mandy Cedillos, 40, a prison counselor, was reported in fair condition at the local hospital with lacerations on his neck and left shoulder.

Detainees carried Cedillos to the gate of the prison compound, then dragged forth the alleged assailant, Moreno Rallao, in handcuffs and turned him over to prison officials.

The hostage released Thursday night, William Hoffpauir Jr., 31, gave a brief statement to reporters Friday morning, saying he and his fellow hostages had been treated well and “were in good health.”

“They never denied any request for food, drink or medication if they had it,” Hoffpauir said.

The Atlanta and Oakdale uprisings were triggered by a renewal last week of a U.S.-Cuban agreement to deport to their homeland more than 2,500 refugees from the 1980 Mariel boat lift. Most of the 2,500 targeted for deportation are classified as criminals or mentally ill.

In Atlanta, federal officials expressed frustration about their difficulty in negotiating with the detainees.

“They are not helping their position by being unable to deliver on proposals seriously discussed in the negotiations’ process,” federal officials said in a statement. “By leading us to believe that they were prepared to resolve the situation, they have impaired their opportunity to state their case before the people of the world. . . . “

Justice Department spokesman Tom Stewart suggested that the apparent emergence of leadership among inmates may have been illusory, and he said that factionalism continues to obstruct negotiations. “There is no one who speaks for the inmates as a group,” Stewart said. “There may be some people who are trying to but they don’t seem to have the full support of the people.”

Stewart said the three Cuban mediators that federal officials had permitted inside the prison “no longer figure actively in the negotiations,” but he left open the possibility that they might again act as mediators in the future.

Reject Miami Mayor’s Offer

Federal officials also rejected an offer by a delegation led by Cuban-born Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez to play a role in the negotiating process. Some members of the delegation, which included Cuban-American politicians and exiled Cuban leaders, had offered to act as hostages in return for the freedom of members of the prison staff held hostage since Monday.

Speaking to reporters after leaving the prison grounds, Suarez appeared disappointed. But he said nevertheless that by coming to Atlanta--where they could appear on local television watched by inmates--the delegation had sent a clear message to the inmates that “we care about what is going on in the prison deeply.”

Twenty-eight more Cuban and three American prisoners defected to guards overnight Thursday and were being held in a cellblock under federal control. But there were no new defections late Friday, leaving 1,128 Cuban detainees and 20 Americans inside the prison in apparent support of the uprising.

Federal officials have not released the names of those rebellious detainees, but they did release lists Friday providing names of the 94 hostages and of the 279 Cuban and 174 American inmates who have surrendered to federal control.

Despite the apparent stalemate at the two prisons, Justice Department officials in Washington expressed optimism Friday that a settlement could be reached at Oakdale, and following that in Atlanta.

See ‘Prompt Resolution’

“We’re hopeful of a relatively prompt resolution at Oakdale. We’re very close there,” said J. Michael Quinlan, director of the federal Bureau of Prisons. “And we are confident we can have a resolution of Atlanta in the very near future. We’re much closer to a resolution there than we were yesterday. There is no deadline for stopping the negotiations unless the hostages are harmed.

“A resolution at Oakdale would be a very hopeful sign for Atlanta,” Quinlan added. “It would have a positive impact on the detainees there.”

Once a settlement is reached, Quinlan said, the Justice Department plans to scatter the detainees among “approximately 15 federal facilities,” but he declined to name those institutions. “Until we actually made the transfers, the locations would not be announced.”

One facility apparently under consideration, however, is the federal prison in Lompoc, Calif. An official at the prison said Friday in response to an inquiry that the facility was “in the process of making additional space available to house up to 1,100 inmates from either Atlanta or Louisiana.

David Lauter reported from Oakdale, La., and Douglas Jehl from Atlanta. Also contributing to this story were staff writers Tamara Jones in Oakdale, Barry Bearak in Atlanta and Robert L. Jackson in Washington.