U.S. Sharply Rejects Castro ‘Offer’ of Unhappy Cubans

The Bush Administration on Friday sharply rejected Fidel Castro’s sarcastic call for U.S. ships to come and pick up Cubans unhappy with his rule. Officials expressed worry about a possible wave of refugees if Cubans take Castro seriously.

The State Department also said it has officially protested to Cuba for its accusing the United States of inciting dozens of Cubans to seek asylum in foreign embassies in Havana in recent days.

Castro, in a lengthy speech Thursday night marking the 37th anniversary of his revolution, spoke of a Cuban dissident who had said the United States started encouraging the asylum seekers in March.

“We have officially protested to the Cuban government the baseless and irresponsible accusation that the United States government is in any way responsible for the crisis or encouraged those who are seeking asylum in foreign embassies in Havana,” the State Department said.

Castro, beset by severe economic problems and isolated by once-Communist allies in Eastern Europe, accused President Bush of being obsessed with toppling Cuba’s government and ridding Cuba of its revolutionary ideology.

In a sarcastic tone, Castro dared “the Yankees” if “they want to receive these poor, persecuted citizens, let them send the boats and the visas.”

But the State Department said it rejects “Castro’s attempts to export his internal problems to the United States by encouraging Cubans to leave. Cuba’s problems must be resolved at home through democratic process and freedom of speech.”

Officials said they are concerned that many Cubans, disaffected by rising prices, shortages and unemployment, might take Castro up on his suggestion that they can leave for the United States.

“Cubans who wish to leave should do so in accordance with established immigration procedures,” the State Department said.

Under a 1984 agreement for orderly emigration, Cubans wishing to leave for the United States can go to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana and apply for visas. In 1989, for example, 10,046 Cubans were allowed to come here as immigrants, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

U.S. officials are haunted by memories of the wave of asylum seekers who flooded the Peruvian Embassy in Havana in 1980, sparking the Mariel boatlift in which 125,000 Cubans fled to the United States.

In the 1980 boatlift, thousands of criminals and mental patients were added to the boats chartered by Cuban-Americans to pick up their relatives and friends at the Cuban port of Mariel.