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In 1994, the Clinton Administration placed 10,000 Cuban refugees in camps in Panama in order to prevent them from entering the US. The refugees were forced to live in tents near the canal zone on Empire Range. Thousands more were held at GTMO.
Dozens to hundreds of Cubans were picked up at sea daily during this time period. The Clinton Administration was denying them entry to the US along with thousands of Haitians that were also fleeing Haiti.
The refugees lived in tents that were not air conditioned, they had very little clothing and most of what they received were donations from people in the US. Most of these refugees arrived with little more than the clothes on their back.
Yet during the six months of Operation Safe Haven there were no complaints by Democrats in Congress. Congress was under the control of Democrats during the time of Operation Safe Haven. The conditions were far worse in the tent cities.
The troops managing the camps also lived in the same type of tents just outside the camps. Cubans were divided into blocks of 252 with ten blocks per camp. There were four camps in Panama.
On December 7-8, 1994, three of the four camps rioted. At Camp 1, the Cubans were using a Budget rental truck as a batter ram to bring down the gate. When General Wilson sent MPs in to gain control of the camp it got worse.
Over the course of the riots there were 332 troops injured, some of them seriously. Yet, there was no outcry from Democrats about the conditions in the camps. stripes.com/brutality-of-1…
President Obama ended the wet foot dry foot policy for Cubans in 2017 just before leaving office in January. usatoday.com/story/news/wor…
