Embassies in Cuba Sealed Off as 9 More Seek Refuge
Cuban police sealed off the Canadian and West German embassies in Havana on Saturday and tightened a security cordon around the Spanish Embassy after nine more Cubans slipped through during the night and broke in.
The latest arrivals brought to 18 the number of Cubans sheltering at the Spanish Embassy, further complicating a bitter diplomatic quarrel over the refugees that has seriously strained relations between Madrid and Havana. Another four Cubans are at the residence of the Italian ambassador.
Fidel Castro’s Communist government has been insisting that all asylum-seekers surrender to Cuban authorities without condition. The government has called all those who have gone into the Spanish, Czechoslovak and Italian embassies and diplomatic residences in recent days “scum” and habitual vagrants.
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