Cuba Delays Clampdown on Rafters : Migration: Havana will wait until Tuesday to halt those fleeing island. Decision catches U.S. by surprise. Postponement of key term of accord allows final surge of escapes.

In a move that caught U.S. officials by surprise, the Cuban government is delaying until Tuesday its clampdown on rafters sailing for the United States, effectively postponing strong measures called for under the agreement just reached by the two countries.

While a statement issued by the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro late Friday night did exhort citizens to stop their dangerous voyages into the Florida Straits, it said there would be no arrests or confiscation of crafts for a 72-hour period beginning at noon Saturday.

But Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Skol, the chief U.S. negotiator in the immigration talks with Cuba, warned Saturday that as far as Washington is concerned, the agreement “went into effect the moment it was signed Friday afternoon and we expect and assume the Cuban government will comply.”

Under the agreement, Cuba pledged to “take effective measures in every way it possibly can” to stop the exodus. At no point during talks in New York last week did the Cuban delegation bring up a 72-hour delay, U.S. officials said Saturday.

Cuba’s surprise move has allowed a last swell of rafters to flee the beleaguered island. Early Saturday, more than a dozen rafts cast off from Gunabo and Cojimar, coastal suburbs of Havana, as many others continued work on makeshift vessels crafted from oil drums, pipes, inner tubes, wood and cloth.

The Coast Guard reported having picked up 447 rafters by 9 p.m. EDT. Recent daily totals typically have been more than 1,000 rafters a day.

Under terms of the new accord, the United States agreed to increase the number of visas granted Cuban citizens to a minimum of 20,000, in exchange for a Cuban agreement to halt the exodus.

Thousands have fled the economic and political impoverishment of Cuba during the past year, especially since a wave of hijackings of government vessels and an anti-government protest in early August led Castro to end efforts to prevent the escapes. A resulting shift in U.S. policy has sent more recent refugees to detention camps at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, producing frustrations among those held there.

About 2,500 Cubans broke out of their camps Saturday to protest the new agreement, Defense Department officials said.

A crowd of refugees walked about half a mile to the base’s Navy Exchange and restaurant area about 1 p.m., but most began voluntarily returning to their camps by 2:30 p.m., the department said in a written statement.

About half an hour later, Marine Brig. Gen. Michael J. Williams, who heads operations at the camps, spoke to about 500 to 600 Cubans who remained, the department said.

“After a 30-minute discussion, this group also began returning to their camps,” the statement said.

Military security personnel dressed in riot gear and armed with fixed bayonets escorted the Cubans back, according to the statement. At least one refugee--a 35-year-old man--suffered a shoulder wound from a bayonet, and authorities said they were trying to confirm a report that one other person was hurt.

The injured man was reported in stable condition at the base’s hospital, where he was to remain overnight for observation.

Although U.S. officials expressed frustration at Castro’s hesitant first steps toward carrying out the new accord, they also appeared willing to give his government limited leeway.

“We’re not dictating to the Cubans how they’re going to go about implementing this agreement,” a senior official said.

A State Department spokesman added: “We will judge Cuba’s compliance by what happens. We’re more concerned about the numbers in the water than what happens on the beaches.”

Some experts on the region said Saturday that it was unrealistic to expect Castro to be able to bring the migration wave under control immediately.

The immigration crisis originated in part because so many Cubans wanted to escape that Castro was unable to control them. On Aug. 5, the Cuban leader faced the first real riot and anti-government demonstration of his more than three decades in power. Because he has lost a bit of his legendary control, some experts said, the confrontations on the beach will be risky for him.

“The real test will be to see how many Cubans come out and whether in 72 hours Castro’s gradually able to control the flow,” one said.

After Tuesday noon, the Cuban government’s statement said, Havana will be prepared to use force if necessary to stop the rafters.

But U.S. officials said force was unnecessary, noting that the Cuban government could end sales of materials used to make the rafts or control the access and departure routes along river ports and Caribbean shores.

In Havana, the government-owned Granma newspaper Saturday heralded the new pact, calling it a “reasonable and just solution, mutually useful and realistic.”

Negotiators reached the agreement after Cuba abandoned its insistence on expanding the talks to include the U.S. economic embargo and U.S. propaganda broadcasts, which Cuba charged were responsible for the exodus. U.S. officials cited several reasons Saturday for Cuba’s change.

Foremost, Cuba recognized that an accord would set a precedent that could possibly open a dialogue on meatier issues, the officials said.

The Cuban government also wanted to demonstrate it was capable of conducting negotiations with the United States and coming to an agreement, U.S. officials said.

Also, Castro was embarrassed by the international publicity about the exodus, officials said.

“Although it was almost ironically portrayed as an American problem, people were risking their lives to get out of his country,” the senior official said.

In the end, the official said, when the United States reaffirmed that the sole focus of the talks would be immigration, Cuba caved in.

Elsewhere Saturday, 14 presidents of Latin American and Caribbean nations appealed to the United States to lift its 32-year economic embargo on Cuba and asked for democratic reforms in the communist state.

After meeting in Brazil, the so-called Rio Group of democratically elected leaders said they “consider indispensable a peaceful transition toward a democratic and pluralist system in Cuba that will respect human rights and freedom of opinion, that is consonant with the popular will.”

Times wire services contributed to this story.