Ferry Tales

After surviving more than three decades of economic embargo and revolutionary rule, Cubans have learned to find humor in the grimmest situations. The new joke in Havana is that they have the world's cheapest ferry: not only will 10 cents take you across Havana Bay, but it will take you all the way to Florida.

It's no laughing matter, however. In the past two weeks, three ferries have been hijacked by refugees trying to flee Cuba. And when crowds started gathering on Havana's Malecon seafront drive last Friday to see if hijackers would commandeer yet another boat, the police moved in, sparking a rock- throwing melee and the worst anti-government demonstrations since Fidel Castro came to power.

It was an eerie replay of the events that led up to the 1980 Mariel boatlift, when 125,000 disaffected Cubans flooded the U.S. Then, Castro had responded to Jimmy Carter's blanket offer of asylum by opening the port of Mariel for any boat that wanted to leave. And last week Castro was again quick to play his trump card. He toured the scene of the rioting in a jeep and later appeared on Cuban TV to accuse the U.S. of provoking the incident. "I do not want to say there will be another Mariel," he said. "But either they take serious measures to guard their coasts, or we will stop putting obstacles in the way of people who want to leave the country."

Castro is clearly trying to divert attention from his own domestic situation, which has deteriorated rapidly since the flow of economic support from Moscow was sharply cut in the early 1990s. But he also has a point. The U.S. makes it easy to defect from Cuba by allowing entry to all those who successfully flee. At the same time, the number of visas granted to enter the U.S. legally is limited.

While "deeply concerned" about a deluge of refugees, Administration officials rejected Castro's threat of a Mariel replay. Said a State Department spokesman: "The United States has stated repeatedly that we will not permit Fidel Castro to dictate our immigration policy."