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Cuba is 90 miles (145 kilometres) south of Florida in the US

The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century. In modern times, the term refers to the large exodus of Cubans to the United States since the 1959 Cuban Revolution and in particular the wave of Cuban American refugees to the U.S. during the years 1960 and 1979. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Shortcut: WP:NPOVD Articles that have been linked to this page are the subject of an NPOV dispute (NPOV stands for Neutral Point Of View; see below). ... Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... Combatants Cuba Spain Commanders Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Máximo Gómez Antonio Maceo Grajales Arsenio Martínez Campos Strength 12,000 rebels  ?? Casualties +300,000 rebels and civilian  ?? The Ten Years War, (Guerra de los Diez Años) (also known as the Great War) began on October 10... The Cuban Revolution refers to the revolution that led to the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batistas regime on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July Movement and other revolutionary elements within the country. ... A Cuban-American is an immigrant to the United States from Cuba. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ...

Prominent exiles

Prominent exiles have included writer José Martí, who spent many years in Spain and the United States in the 19th century raising support for Cuban independence from Spain. Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl spent nearly a year and a half in Mexico (1955-1956), after being amnestied from prison. Fidel briefly visited the United States during his tenure in exile to raise support for the Cuban revolution. Since the revolution, prominent exiled figures have included Carlos Franqui who relocated to Italy; Huber Matos, who was imprisoned by Castro's government for twenty years after resigning his governmental position in 1959 before relocating to Miami; and Guillermo Cabrera Infante the prominent Cuban writer, who relocated to the United Kingdom. For other persons named José Martí, see José Martí (disambiguation). ... Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... This article is about the Cuban politician. ... The Cuban Revolution refers to the revolution that led to the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batistas regime on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July Movement and other revolutionary elements within the country. ... Carlos Franqui (born 1921) is a Cuban writer, poet, journalist, art critic, and political activist. ... Huber Matos was a Cuban revolutionary who successfully overthrew the dictatorship of General Fulgencio Batista along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, Raul Castro and others. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ... Guillermo Cabrera Infante (April 22, 1929 – February 21, 2005) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín. ...

Waves of Exiles to the United States

The majority of the more than 2 million current Cuban exiles living in the United States live in and around the city of Miami. Other exiles have relocated to form substantial Cuban American communities in Union City, New Jersey, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Raleigh, North Carolina and Palm Desert, California. This article is about the city in Florida. ... A Cuban-American is an immigrant to the United States from Cuba. ... Spectators viewing the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks from across the Hudson River, in the terrace courtyard of the Union City Boxing Club. ... For other places with the same name, see Hazleton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see San Juan. ... For other uses of this name, see Raleigh. ... Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), approximately 11 miles east of Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley. ...

Most Cuban exiles in the United States are both legally and self-described political refugees. This status allows them different treatment under US Immigration statutes than other Latin American immigrants. Power lines leading to a trash dump hover just overhead in El Carpio, a Nicaraguan refugee camp in Costa Rica Under international law, a refugee is a person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her...

The exiles came in numerous discernible waves.

The first wave occurred after the Cuban revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro. A lot of the refugees came with the idea that the new government would not last long, and their stay in the US was temporary. Homes, cars, and other properties in Cuba were left with family, friends, and relatives, who would take care of them until the Castro regime would fall. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ...

The second wave began in 1961 amid the nationalization of educational institutions, hospitals, private land, and industrial facilities. Additionally, the Castro government began a political crackdown on the opposition either incarcerating opponents or perceived opponents or executing the same. At this point, after the Bay of Pigs invasion, Castro had gone from a self-proclaimed non-communist freedom fighter to a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist. Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act by which a nation takes possession of assets without requiring the owners consent, with or without payment of compensation. ...

There was a smaller wave of refugees in 1965 from the Cuban port of Camarioca. Cuban exiles from Miami brought friends and relatives to Key West by using small leisure boats.

From 1965 through 1972, "Freedom Flights" from Havana to Miami transported thousands of Cuban refugees. Flights were limited to immediate relatives, with a waiting period anywhere from one to two years.

In 1980, probably one of the most impacting wave of exiles occurred during what became known as the Mariel Boatlift. The mass boatlift occurred after a number of Cubans drove a bus through the gates of the Havana Peruvian Embassy and requested asylum. One embassy guard died as a result of friendly fire when another guard machine gunned the incoming bus and hit the first one accidentally. When the Peruvian ambassador refused to return the exiled citizen to the authorities, Castro removed the Cuban guards from the embassy, basically opening the door to the 4,000 plus asylum seekers that came into the embassy within the next few days. Reacting to this unexpected and sudden exodus and embarrassed in front of the world media, Castro basically stated that "anyone who wants to leave Cuba can do so". This resulted in an even worse exodus through the port of Mariel, where an improvised flotilla of Cuban exiles from Miami in small pleasure boats and commercial shrimping vessels brought Cuban citizens who wished to leave the island. Within weeks, more than 125,000 Cubans reached the United States despite Coast Guard attempts to stem the movement. As the exodus became international news and an embarrassment for the Cuban government, Castro rounded up residents confined to insane asylums, hard-core criminals--not political--from prisons, and other "socially undesirables", forcing the incoming rescuers from Miami to take the worse elements from the island to the US if they wanted to leave Cuba with their friends and relatives. The scale of the exodus created political difficulties for both governments, and an agreement was reached to end the boatlift after several months. Out of more than 120,000 refugees, only around 6,000 were considered criminal element--this can also be seen as part of the disclaimer at the end of "Scarface", where Al Pacino plays a criminal "marielito". After two years, most of the hardcore criminals had disappeared, either in federal prisons or dead, and the remaining population was quickly assimilated with the rest of the population. Cuban refugees arriving in crowded boats during the Mariel Boatlift crisis. ... Mariel is a town and bay on the north coast of Cuba approximately 40 kilometres west of the city of Havana. ... USCG HH-65 Dolphin USCG HH-60J JayHawk USCG HC-130H departs Mojave USCG HC-130H on International Ice Patrol duties The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is at all times a branch of the U.S. military, a maritime law enforcement agency, and a federal regulatory body. ...

During the past 10 years exile waves have consisted of "balseros" (rafters), who brave the rough seas in homemade rafts. Though nowhere as numerous but yet more dramatic than the others, this group has proven that there is enough desire to leave the communist regime, no matter how risky the means of transportation.

See also

Cuba Portal

• Cuban American
• Cuba-United States relations
• Cuban-American lobby
• Elián González
• Opposition to Fidel Castro

Image File history File links Flag_of_Cuba. ... A Cuban-American is an immigrant to the United States from Cuba. ... Cuba and the United States of America have had a mutual interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. ... The Cuban-American lobby is a general term for the various groups largely made up by Cuban emigrants to the USA and their descendants who pressure the U.S. government over its policy toward Cuba. ... Elián González (born December 6, 1993) was at the center of a heated custody and immigration battle in 2000 involving the Cuban and United States governments, his father, his Miami and Cuban relatives, and the Cuban American community of Miami. ... Or Opposition to a Participatory Democracy (of Only Party) created by the Popular Socialist Revolution, named The Cuban Revolution The Opposition to Fidel Castros Cuban government is largely unofficial and illegal within Cuba due to the political system led by Fidel Castro being a one party state. ...

External links

• The Cuban Rafter Phenomenon: A Unique Sea Exodus

v • d • e Cuba-United States relations

Bay of Pigs Invasion • Brothers to the Rescue • Cuban American • Cuban-American lobby • Cuban Five • Cuban Missile Crisis • Elián González affair • Guantanamo Bay Naval Base • Helms-Burton Act • List of Cuba-US aircraft hijackings • Luis Posada Carriles • Mariel boatlift • Opposition to Fidel Castro • Platt Amendment • Spanish-American War • United States embargo against Cuba • United States Interests Section in Havana • United States Ambassadors to Cuba Image File history File links Flag_of_Cuba. ... Cuba and the United States of America have had a mutual interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Combatants Cubans trained by Soviet advisors Cuban exiles trained by United States Commanders Fidel Castro José Ramón Fernández Ernesto Che Guevara Francisco Ciutat de Miguel Grayston Lynch Pepe San Roman Erneido Oliva Strength 51,000 1,500 Casualties various estimates; over 1,600 dead[1] to 5,000... Brothers to the Rescue (Spanish: Hermanos al Rescate) is a Miami-based organization headed by José Basulto. ... A Cuban-American is an immigrant to the United States from Cuba. ... The Cuban-American lobby is a general term for the various groups largely made up by Cuban emigrants to the USA and their descendants who pressure the U.S. government over its policy toward Cuba. ... This poster from a Swedish-Cuban friendship organization says: Free the 5 Cubans, political prisoners in the USA The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles. ... President Kennedy in a crowded Cabinet Room during the Cuban Missile Crisis. ... The custody and immigration status of a young Cuban boy, Elián González (born December 6, 1993), were at the center of a heated controversy in 2000 involving the Cuban and United States governments, his father, his Miami and Cuban relatives, and the Cuban American community of Miami. ... Gitmo redirects here. ... The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996 (better known as the Helms-Burton Act) is a United States federal law which strengthens and continues the United States embargo against Cuba. ... Aircraft hijacking incidents between the United States and Cuba reached their peak in 1969. ... Arrest photograph of Luis Posada Carriles Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-Castro agent. ... Cuban refugees arriving in crowded boats during the Mariel Boatlift crisis. ... Or Opposition to a Participatory Democracy (of Only Party) created by the Popular Socialist Revolution, named The Cuban Revolution The Opposition to Fidel Castros Cuban government is largely unofficial and illegal within Cuba due to the political system led by Fidel Castro being a one party state. ... Page one of the Platt Amendment The Platt Amendment was a rider amended to the Army Appropriations Act, a United States federal law passed on March 2, 1901 that stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba since the Spanish-American War, and defined the... Combatants United States Republic of Cuba Philippine Republic Spain Commanders Nelson A. Miles William R. Shafter George Dewey Máximo Gómez Emilio Aguinaldo Patricio Montojo Pascual Cervera Arsenio Linares Ramón Blanco Casualties 3,289 U.S. dead (432 from combat); considerably higher although undetermined Cuban and Filipino casualties... The United States embargo against Cuba (described in Cuba as el bloqueo, Spanish for the blockade) is an economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed on Cuba on February 7, 1962. ... The United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba or USINT Havana (for the State Department telegraphic address) represents US interests in Cuba. ... This is a list of United States ambassadors to Cuba. ...