Impatient for Freedom

Refugees on the rampage

It began innocently enough when a few Cubans lit a fire to make coffee. Military police moved in and doused the flames, telling the refugees that open fires were outlawed on the Army base at Fort Chaffee, Ark. A small incident, but last week it ignited the resentment that had been smoldering in some of the 19,000 Cuban refugees from Castro awaiting relocation in the U.S. A force of 500 Cubans marched out through the front gate before being rounded up by harassed soldiers and police. That night 200 Cubans tried to storm the gates. Repelled, they staged a full-scale riot and set mess halls and supply rooms ablaze. Police and soldiers broke up the rampage with tear gas, but small mobs roamed the base starting more fires and demanding freedom.

The cry was ironic, for liberty was precisely what the hard-pressed federal officials running the camp were trying to give the refugees--and as swiftly as possible. But the sheer magnitude of the task, plus some inexcusable lack of coordination, slowed the process to a maddening crawl for people who had expected to be quickly reunited with their families on American soil. The result was yet another frustrating incident in the long chain of false starts and policy shifts that have marked the U.S. treatment of the Cubans.

The problem began when 112,000 Cubans arrived in the space of 48 days--a logistical nightmare that flummoxed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the bureau charged with coordinating the resettlement process. Says William Combs, chief spokesman for the FEMA: "We had to set up while it was still happening." One key problem turned out to be a communications snafu between the federal agency and the private organizations that find homes for the refugees after they are cleared. The Immigration and Naturalization Service had approved 4,000 Fort Chaffee refugees for resettlement after concluding that they were not criminals. Simultaneously, the U.S. Catholic Conference, one of the main private agencies involved in the operation, had compiled a list of 4,735 people who had homes awaiting them. But the two lists did not match. Not until last week, after the riot, did federal and private authorities begin to work together more effectively. In all, some 57,000 Cubans have been resettled from the camps, but officials anticipate that it will take months to process the remaining ones.

Last week, Carter ordered the Justice Department to try to send back to Cuba those who have serious criminal records or have violated U.S. law. Carter's order may well affect the 125 Cubans who led the riot; at week's end 60 of them were being transferred to a detention center in El Paso for trial in a federal court. To keep order in the Fort Chaffee camp, Carter tripled the federal troops to 2,000. But White House Press Secretary Jody Powell took care to note that "the vast majority" were not involved in the violence.

Indeed, hundreds of Cubans had tried to help break up the riots. A number rescued two soldiers who were endangered by fire, and a few even tore slats from their beds and fought against their countrymen. "I feel very sad and very ashamed," said Pedro Arbolares, 44, as a bulldozer scraped away the burned remains of a mess hall. Some Cubans had scrawled VIVA CARTER on their chests with Magic Marker, and others held up signs reading PUNISH THE TROUBLEMAKER.

The people waiting to be freed represent a cross-section of working-class Cuba. Some 75% of the 19,000 at Fort Chaffee are single men. Families are assigned their own apartments within the buildings. For many of the refugees, the first bit of housekeeping involved removing the screens on the barracks windows, thus enabling the exiles to lean out and shout greetings to their friends.

The Cubans seem to like the food, particularly since black beans, rice and sweet, strong, Cuban-style coffee have been added to the regular Army menu. Perhaps revealing dietary restrictions under Castro, the Cubans wolf down any sugar they can get, even pouring it into their mouths straight out of the containers.

Several recreation centers feature color television. Favorite fare: afternoon soap operas, which draw standing crowds. English classes are taught by volunteers from nearby Fort Smith, movies are shown on the lawn at night (westerns are the most popular) and soccer and baseball games go on constantly, even at night, when lighted fields are used.

The Cubans have developed their own minisociety, complete with black markets and prostitutes. Along the section known as "El Boulevard," merchants spread out their wares on plastic drop cloths, and the area takes on the carnival air of a Third World marketplace. A pair of men's jeans goes for $1 or a pack and a half of cigarettes.

Under the circumstances, life is generally pleasant, but the Cubans nevertheless live in a state of constant tension, wondering when they will get out. One of the main causes of the riots was the arrival at Fort Chaffee of several hundred Cuban-American families who were under the mistaken impression that they could quickly pick up their relatives and depart. Though by week's end refugees were still trickling out of the base at the rate of only 62 a day, FEMA made a special effort to process those with relatives waiting outside the gates. Yellow school buses carried these refugees to the base theater, where their relatives were waiting. As the families were reunited, the air rang with the cry "Al fin! Al fin!"--At last! At last!

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