American Notes Rescues

Vowing to die rather than live under Fidel Castro's regime, Cuban inmates at Alabama's Talladega Federal Correctional Institution took over the prison's maximum-security Alpha unit on Aug. 21 and seized nine hostages. Thirty-two inmates, among the 125,000 Cubans who fled in 1980, were facing imminent deportation for crimes committed in the U.S. As the 10-day siege dragged on, & the heavily armed prisoners grew increasingly desperate and threatened to kill three of their hostages.

Just before dawn last Friday, a SWAT team of more than 200 federal officers lobbed two explosives into the Alpha unit, blew the doors open and rushed inside. None of the hostages and only one of the prisoners were injured in the three-minute lightning strike. "We did it, buddy! I knew we would!" associate warden R.H. Edenfield told a SWAT-team member. "It was a piece of cake."

Part of the assault force climbed on the roof to tear down a Cuban flag and other banners flown by the inmates. The unit's 121 Cubans and 18 non-Cubans, many of whom were apparently not involved in the hostage taking, were laid out on the ground and shackled until authorities could identify the guilty inmates. U.S. Immigration officials announced that the instigators would be flown to Cuba immediately.