Archive Report
Archive Report
Sanctuary for Political Offenders
Controversies Over Asylum for Cuban Refugees
Collapse of the Batista government in Cuba last Jan. 1 threw prominent officials and adherents of the fallen regime into a frantic search for safety abroad or in foreign embassies in Havana. Asylum—the protection a state may afford a foreigner in trouble with the government of his own country—was granted in both of its two prevailing forms. Batista himself, and more than a hundred of his aides and their families, found territorial asylum in the Dominican Republic, and 400 others were given similar refuge in the United States. So-called diplomatic asylum was extended to from 150 to 200 persons by 13 Latin American embassies in Havana.
The new Cuban government, as often happens when asylum is granted ...