Uploaded July 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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President Bill Clinton: “Today I have ordered that illegal refugees from Cuba will not be allowed to enter the United States.”

For 28 years, any Cuban who reached American shores or was rescued in American waters could receive immediate US residency no more during the summer of ’94, Cubans in massive numbers took to the seas in homemade boats. Cuban leader Fidel Castro permitted it, watching part of his economic crisis transferred 90 miles north to South Florida.

Florida Governor Lawton Chiles: “This is not a manageable situation—not for Florida, not for Monroe County. You know we want to see a federal response.”

[Gov. Chiles won his reelection bid that year, trouncing challenger Jeb Bush - see youtube.com/watch?v=gz12vubsknc ]

So, the rafters were detoured and detained at US military bases at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Panama and to put the squeeze on Castro, direct US-Cuban charter flights were banned and the money Cubans in the United States could send home was cut in half.

In September Cuba agreed to stop the exodus and the u.s. agreed to admit 20,000 Cubans a year, but the US sanctions still a sore spot remain.

Narrator: Don Harrison