Dispatches

By TAMMERLIN DRUMMOND/IN GUANTANAMO

! Huddled together under a drab army tent, six Cuban refugees trade fantasies about an uprising to liberate the detention camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, where they have been imprisoned for the past four months. They couldn't know that later in the week, 1,000 Cubans at a detention camp in Panama would riot, and that before it was over, more than 220 American soldiers would be injured and 19 Cubans hospitalized. That was at a camp with only about 8,500 refugees; at Guantanamo there are 22,500, making it potentially even more explosive.

At Guantanamo, however, there is an alternative to rebellion, and that is escape. Seven-foot-high rolls of barbed wire encircle the refugees. Dozens of military policemen monitor their every move, and land mines surround the base. But on average of twice a week, someone wakes up feeling skittish and bolts. According to military officials, 357 refugees, tired of languishing in the dusty, insect-ridden camp, have fled back home. Most of those who attempt to escape have already made official arrangements to be repatriated. The Cuban government has been accepting only 25 people a week.

An irony of the crisis over the Cuban boat people is that many of those who risked their lives to get to the U.S. aboard rickety, homemade craft are taking to the water again. This time, though, they are heading back to Cuba. They lay their cots over the barbed wire that blocks their path to Guantanamo Bay. If they reach the water and swim to the other side, they'll be in Cuban territory.

Misael Orduna Cecilda, a 24-year-old ice-cream vendor from Havana, made an unsuccessful break for it three weeks ago. He sprinted 25 yds. to the edge of a steep cliff, then jumped into the bay. The swirling currents quickly sapped his strength. He waved to a Coast Guard cutter to hoist him aboard. "The problem is, our goal was get to the U.S. as fast as possible," said Cecilda, fingering a scar on his left leg where he cut himself on the barbed wire. "Now we're stuck here, and all we can do is think about our families that we left behind." Two men have drowned during the one-mile swim. The picturesque inlet where their bodies were found is known as Dead Man's Cove. Another man trying to walk across the border was killed when he stepped on a land mine. Cecilda was returned to a small camp called November, which the Americans have actually moved closer to the Cuban border so the refugees won't have as far to swim. The U.S. policy is to pursue escapees until they reach the water without firing at them.

"I haven't tried to escape yet, but I'm going to," said Elsa Quintero, 44, a grandmother who fled Cuba on a raft and has been in detention at Guantanamo since Aug. 28. "The 25th of December is a date I'd like to celebrate, and I'll walk across minefields if I have to."