Essay On Mariel Boatlift

Between April and October of 1980, over 125,000 people fled to the United States from Cuba. This massive exodus became known as the “Mariel boatlift.” The Mariel boatlift was the third-wave of emigration from Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The Mariel exodus was also the largest. The simple answer to why the boatlift began is to say that the Cuban people were fleeing communist oppression. The simple answer is not incorrect; however, it is incomplete. There were a plentitude of factors which contributed to the Mariel boatlift’s occurrence. These factors date back to the decay of U.S.-Cuba relations when Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, and expanded as the result of the Cuban recession of 1979 and 1980 and disenchantment with the revolution. To add, the Mariel boatlift left a serious impact on the United States as the flood of emigrants continued over the five month period. Not only did the boatlift lead to the loss of Carter’s 1980 election campaign, it also exposed major issues in Fidel Castro’s regime.

When Castro came to power in 1959,

agrarian reform shortly followed. The new Cuban government deemed agrarian reform as essential to economic development, in addition to the abolishment of social class issues in Cuba. The agrarian reform resulted in the nationalization of land by the Cuban government. The U.S. reacted negatively to Castro’s reforms for two reasons. The first reason for this negative reaction was that U.S. investors lost property when Castro nationalized Cuban land. Investors who were reimbursed for their land did not receive the full amount of what the land was worth. The second reason for the negative U.S. reaction came directly from the Presidential Administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was particularly disturbed by the “radicalized direction” the Cuban government was taking. The President felt as if Cuba was heading in a communist direction. Evidently, Castro’s path towards communism was negatively received by the U.S. in the Cold War era because the predominant policy of the U.S. was based on containment. Containment policy sought to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. With Castro in power, the U.S. faced the threat of communism ninety miles from Key West. Washington responded to Castro’s Agrarian Reform with an embargo on sugar cane. The Eisenhower Administration hoped for the embargo to cause Castro to reconsider his “radical” reforms. Dedicated to the revolution, Castro continued to implement “radical” changes, despite disapproval from the U.S. government.
Keeping up with the traditional American Cold War policy of containment, the U.S. sought to prevent Castro’s revolution from going on any longer. Under the Eisenhower administration, the Central Intelligence Agency began devised a counter-revolutionary program to topple Castro’s regime with a full-scale invasion of the Caribbean island. Although the plan was originally developed during Eisenhower’s time as President, the administration of John F. Kennedy authorized the invasion in 1961. Castro’s army quickly defeated the CIA trained Cuban exiles. The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion was a massive embarrassment for the Kennedy Administration, and resulted in the complete sever of economic and diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana. The poor state of relations between the two countries, characterized by hostility and mutual mistrust, continued throughout various Presidential administrations.

The first U.S. President to attempt to normalize relations with Cuba was President Gerald Ford; however, Cuban intervention in Angola terminated Ford’s efforts. In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the presidency on a campaign based on human rights. Carter’s goal was to incorporate human rights into the U.S’s foreign policy to make for a more open foreign policy. In addition, the Carter administration desired to normalize relations with Cuba, as President Ford did in the previous administration. Carter took advantage of the decrease of Cuban troops in Angola, and after two months in office he directed his administration to take a new approach towards Cuba in Presidential Directive/NSC-6. The Presidential Directive outlined the administration’s goal of reestablishing diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana. Carter felt that this approach would be beneficial to the interest of the U.S. in combatting terrorism, progressing human rights, halting Cuban foreign intervention, receiving compensation for American property lost as a result of Castro’s 1959 agrarian reform, and reducing the relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Attempts at reconciliation appeared to be successful at first. The Carter Administration revoked the U.S.’s ban on travel to Cuba and allowed for American dollars to be spend on the island. The efforts were not one-sided as Castro agreed to release political prisoners held in Cuba. The two countries also “established ‘interest sections’ in each other’s capitals.” Despite these bilateral gestures, improvements in relations were adversely affected when the Cuban government introduced combat troops to Ethiopia in 1978. Relations also were harmed due to Castro’s support of Latin American revolutionary movements. Likewise on the Cuban side, tensions flared as Castro became increasingly enraged with the U.S. after a string of boat and plane hijackings occurred in early 1980. Castro alleged that the Carter administration did little to punish the hijackers, and instead welcomed the offenders as heroes.
The boat and plane hijackings that occurred in early 1980 represented the social and economic issues prevalent in Cuba. Many of the Cuban people grew unhappy with the direction of the revolution as they realized it did little to benefit them. As a result of a dialogue in 1978, Castro agreed to allow Cuban-exiles to visit Cuba. Over 100,000 Cuban exiles ventured to Cuba in 1979. Cubans received a glance of how well their American relatives were living in the United States. This, along with the Cuban recession of 1979 to 1980 did not help to alleviate the upset of the Cuban people.
The faltering economy also caused employment rates to drop in Cuba. For many Cubans, unemployment lead to desperation and such was the case with Hector Sanyustiz. Sanyustiz, an unemployed bus driver, along with a group of others decided to take action to flee their oppression. On April 1, 1980, Sanyustiz and his group crashed a bus into the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana. In the chaos of the gatecrashing, a guard was fatally wounded by a ricocheting bullet. Additionally, several of the passengers on the bus were shot. In the aftermath of the event, the gatecrashers were escorted to a hospital by the Peruvians and granted asylum. Nonetheless, the combination of an economy in shambles and a decrease in disillusion for the revolution created a push factor for many Cubans, and many turned to desperate measures to escape the island.
Between the plane and boat hijackings, and now the gatecrashing incident, Castro’s frustrations mounted. On April 4, 1980 Castro made the decision to remove Cuban guards from the Peruvian Embassy. Over the next few days, the Peruvian Embassy became engorged by Cubans seeking asylum. The numbers were staggering, with almost 11,000 Cubans storming the embassy. The event quickly transformed into a humanitarian crisis, as many refused to leave the embassy as they feared losing the ability to gain asylum. The Cuban government was forced to provide the refugees with food and water. Peru agreed to take in more of the refugees and to grant them asylum. The humanitarian issue caught the attention of U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Carter invoked the emergency provision of the Refugee Act of 1980, and allotted for 3,500 Cubans refugees to be granted asylum into the United States. On April 20, 1980, Castro grew fed up with the dissidents and decided to expel his opposition. The Cuban leader opened the Port of Mariel to those who wished to leave. Exiled Cubans were able to come to Mariel and pick up their relatives. The Mariel boatlift was officially on.
Word of the Mariel Harbor’s opening quickly spread to Cuban exiles, particularly those in South Florida. Exiles sailed down to Cuba to collect their relatives. Despite the joyful unification among the exiles and their families, the U.S. government was not met with the same jubilation. The Carter Administration feared that a massive emigration wave could potentially have destroyed the American economy, and so the U.S. began to warn against travel to Cuba to pick up émigrés. Those who came on the Mariel boatlift were not granted asylum status under the Refugee Act of 1980. The act only protected the original 3,500 Cubans from the Peruvian Refugee Crisis. Marielitos, as they came to be known, fell under the status of “illegal aliens” in the United States.
The Carter Administration continued to advise skippers against venturing to Cuba; however, the warnings were mostly ignored. Recognizing that many of the refugees were fleeing communist oppression, Carter initiated a new plan. In a speech on May 5, 1980, Carter welcomed the Cubans with “open arms and heart,” and proclaim that the U.S. was to accept Cubans by the “tens of thousands.” The issue with Carter’s speech was that it lacked specifics. Carter did not announce how the U.S. was to accept all the refugees. On May 14, 1980, Carter stated the Administration’s official plan for handling the boatlift: to stop it in favor of a different method. The Carter Administration allowed for Cuban emigration flow to continue into the country; however, immigration had to occur on the administration’s terms. The Carter administration ordered the U.S. Coast Guard to halt boats which carried Cuban émigrés. If the boatlift could not be stopped, it would at least be slowed down. At the time, the boatlift was uncontrolled, and President Carter also believed the “the boatlift was too dangerous.” The U.S. government planned to charter a ship and to initiate an airlift so Cubans could be screened for certain criteria before they came to the U.S. in order for the government to gain control over the Mariel situation. The plan was to occur at Castro’s discretion. Despite the U.S.’s effort to cooperate with Castro, the Cuban President ignored the U.S.’s proposal. Carter’s attempt to get the boatlift under control failed. Castro reacted with anger towards Carter’s attempt to halt the boatlift. The Cuban President criticized the U.S. for its willingness to take boat and plane hijackers, but not to accept Cuban emigrants. Castro highlighted the hypocrisy of the situation.
The boatlift continued until Castro cut it off in September 1980, and the flood of emigrants officially ended by October 1980. One of the major reasons as to why Castro decided to close the Port of Mariel has to do with the 1980 Presidential Election. Jimmy Carter was up for re-election and his opponent that year was Ronald Reagan, a Republican. Castro decided to close the Port of Mariel to reduce the harm that the Mariel boatlift had been doing to Carter’s re-election campaign, particularly in the states of Florida and Arkansas, where many Cuban emigrants were detained. Americans were fearful that the Cubans who came on the boatlift may have been criminals. Although Castro did send some criminals to the U.S. on the boatlift, the majority of them were innocent people who desperately wanted to live in the United States. Only two percent of those who came on the Mariel boatlift were actually defined as criminals under U.S. law. Castro was hopeful that U.S-Cuba relations could prosper if President Carter received a second term as President.
Although the majority of those who came on the boatlift were regular people, a number of them were criminals.

The situations for criminals who came on the Mariel boatlift was particularly interesting, as many remained stuck in a sort of legal limbo. As mentioned before, Marielitos did not enter the country legally, so they were defined as “illegal aliens.” Illegal aliens lack the protections that a U.S. citizen has. In a normal situation, if an illegal alien commits a crime, they are expelled from the country the immigrated to. Marielitos who committed crimes were in an entirely unique circumstance because the United States was unable to expel them. Castro refused to take back those he pushed into exile. This created a position of legal limbo for many Marielitos, where the Marielitos that did commit crimes were put into prisons with no clue as to whether or not they would be released since no one would take

them.
The Mariel boatlift may be seen as a reflection of the poor conditions of Cubans. The flow of Cubans into the U.S. between April and October of 1980 was nothing short of massive as over 125,000 came to the United States. A plethora of push and pull factors propelled the migrants. Certainly, the state of the Cuban economy between 1979 and 1980 was a major push factor for many Cubans, in addition to the realization that Castro’s revolution was not in the best interest of many Cubans. Most importantly, the exodus revealed the difficulties of living under Castro’s regime. The emigrants were pulled to the U.S. when they saw the prosperity of their Cuban exile relatives. Cubans understood what the U.S. had to offer them: a life free from communist oppression.