ACCESSION NUMBER:318365
FILE ID:LEF307
DATE:12/22/93
TITLE:CASTRO'S DAUGHTER DEFECTS TO U.S. (12/22/93)
TEXT:*93122207.LEF CASTRO'S DAUGHTER DEFECTS LLUBERES
*LEF307 12/22/93
CASTRO'S DAUGHTER DEFECTS TO U.S.
(State announcement) all (680)
(With Lsi306 of 12/22/93)
WASHINGTON -- Fidel Castro's daughter Alina Fernandez Revuelta has arrived
in Atlanta, Georgia, after being granted the equivalent of political asylum
in the United States, the State Department said Dec. 22.
David Johnson, director of press relations, told reporters that Fernandez
left Havana and traveled to Spain Dec. 20, and arrived in Atlanta the
following day aboard a commercial flight from Madrid.
Fernandez, believed to be in her late 30s, traveled by herself, he said.
News reports said she left a teen-aged daughter in Cuba, where her father
has been in power since 1959.
"She contacted our embassy to ask consideration for asylum after she arrived
in Madrid," Johnson said. "After review with the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, a decision was made to grant her request. In the
terms employed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, she was
1paroled' into the United States."
"Parole is a term of law which is specific to Cubans," Johnson said,
explaining that it stems from a provision of a 1966 law that allows Cubans
into the United States. "One year and one day following that parole, they
are eligible for permanent resident status."
"In a legal sense, Cubans aren't granted political asylum," the acting
spokesman said. "They're paroled into the United States. Were she from
any other country, I think that the term would have been political asylum.
But it is an important distinction in the law because nationals from other
states are treated differently. This is a provision of law in 1966 which
gave certain quick admission advantages to Cubans because of the specific
nature of the regime."
While he had no specific comment on Fernandez's action, Johnson noted that
"it just provides one more illustration of the lack of freedom and lack of
hope which pervade Cuba today."
Johnson said he did not know if Fernandez had any contact with U.S.
officials before she arrived in Madrid. "I don't have any information on
the way she left (Havana) or how she arrived in Madrid," he said.
Asked if she was being "debriefed" by U.S. intelligence officials, Johnson
replied: "I believe that not to be the case. I think she's with her
private sponsors." He declined to identify those sponsors.
"We're treating this as a private matter involving a private citizen. It's
not a matter of state." He added he was "unaware of any discussions
planned with the Cuban government through intermediaries or otherwise"
concerning the defection of Castro's daughter.
Fernandez is a long-time critic of her father's revolution and has called
Castro a "tyrant." She wished to leave the island for years but could
never receive permission.
She was once married to a Mexican and wanted to emigrate with him to Mexico
but Cuban authorities turned down her request. Eventually he left for
Mexico alone.
In recent years, she has been living quietly with her daughter in a
fashionable section of Havana. Her mother, a supporter of the revolution,
lived nearby.
In April 1992, she told The Washington Post that she was last allowed to
leave the island in 1964 at the age of 8 when she visited Paris with her
mother.
"I dream of going back there, of going anywhere," she said in a conversation
at her home. "But I'll never be able to leave, like a lot of other people
here."
Later in 1992 she was quoted as saying: "What do I think about Cuba's
socialism? I used to believe in it when I was very little. But now, Cuban
socialism is a dead-end street. In my mind, I associate it with economic
collapse, with food shortages."
Fernandez, a former model, said she has not spoken to her father in years.
Her main memory of him is from her childhood when Castro would visit the
apartment where she lived with her mother.
As a teen-ager, the daughter repaid Castro's scant attentions by refusing to
use his surname. Castro has never publicly acknowledged her as his
daughter.
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