Leaders of Protest by Cuban Refugees Sent to 2 Federal Prisons
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LAREDO, Tex. — Leaders of a hunger strike by Cuban refugees protesting their long confinement by U.S. immigration authorities pending deportation were transported today to out-of-state federal prisons in a move to end the 9-day-old protest.
Immigration and Naturalization Service officials moved 10 Cubans from the Webb County Law Enforcement Center in Laredo by plane to federal prisons at El Reno, Okla., and Leavenworth, Kan.
INS spokesman Mario Ortiz said from Dallas that the INS considered at least five of the 10 to be leaders of the protest by scores of Cubans, many of whom have been at the jail in Laredo for more than two years.
Webb County Sheriff Juan Garza said the number of participants in the hunger strike, which had totaled 120 when it began, dropped to about 70 today.
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