European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Television reporter Maria Montoya is among the Marie refugees who have succeeded. Continued from Page 13 contingency plans to prevent a new Mariel. Quot Castro has used opening up his Borders As a tactic to relieve pressure Quot Graham said. Quot we re in a dilemma because our National tradition is that we provide Sanctuary but we ought to discourage a new boat lift and make sure its an orderly  about one fifth of the Mariel refugees had served jail time in Cuba but for the great majority it was for Petty offences or political crimes. Today most authorities say fewer than 10 percent of the refugees were criminals. Some 2,600 still Are in Federal custody 173 were returned to Cuba under a suspended immigration agreement and an estimated 4,000 Are in various state and local prisons. Quot i can Tell you now that the Impact was positive Quot said Miami s City manager Cesar Odio. Quot Only a Small percentage created problems. Most have been Good citizens. But the immediate Impact was negative a for All  a Gallup poll conducted at the time indicated that cubans usually considered an immigration Success Story had become one of the nations most unpopular alien groups. That image made resettling the immigrants difficult. Many were placed in refugee Camps at . Military bases in the Florida Panhandle Arkansas Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Frustrated refugees rioted in Arkansas and there were disturbances in the other Camps. Carter declared the boat lift illegal a month after it began. Boat captains were fined and had their vessels confiscated. But it was too late. About 70,000 cubans already had arrived and More were on their Way. The Only other time Castro had opened a port Cama Rioca in 1965, the total number of refugees was fewer than 6,000. Quot in the beginning we completely missed the boat Quot said Gunther o. Wagner who worked for the state departments cuban haitian task Force. Quot How did we know would we get 300, 3,000, 10,000? we got 125,000.�?� the criminal image and the Large number of single men thousands of them homosexuals made finding sponsors difficult. Quot a lot of groups just gave up Quot said Sharry. Quot the Church groups we were used to working with were Nice suburban churches. And now Here a Fileno with a Tattoo on his eyelid ready to go to the Church picnic Quot the last resettlement Camp fort Chaffee ark., was open until feb. 16, 1982, nearly two years after the boat lift began. Quot the refugees kept asking a when Are you going to get me out of Here i be been lied to and lied to a Quot Sharry recalled. Quot we failed a lot of  Sharry and others involved in the Mariel resettlement can laugh now about some of their headaches. Sharry recalls one of the first refugees he found a sponsor for Quot split for the coast Quot with the sponsor s very willing Quot Nice Church lady Quot wife. Wagner says one Quot very industrious Young Man Quot stole a bus and was found in Seattle driving around town and collecting fares for his own Gypsy bus service. And they have warm memories of the refugees who overcame frustration and finally succeeded. Quot i am proud to have helped so Many people find Freedom a Wagner said. Cuban exiles. Plotting praying for Castro s fall by Laura Parker Washington Post n the hot and steamy swampland of the Florida Everglades Francisco Avila leads 50 dedicated soldiers through the Rigours of guerrilla warfare every sunday. The men Many of them veterans of the Bay of pigs invasion crawl through the marshes in practice ambushes climb through the windows of a false front plywood two Story building and with semiautomatic weapons shoot their Way across an open Field firing at flagged targets that pop up from the mud. They have been training to defeat Fidel Castro a army since the Day their invasion failed in 1961. Not too Many Miles away in an elegantly appointed South Miami office Jorge Mas Canosa a made in America millionaire talks quietly about placing the final touches on a new cuban Constitution and preparing the Quot transitional Laws Quot that will be needed when Castro is finally gone. Mas recently hired conservative economist Milton Friedman to design a new Economy for Cuba based on the capitalist system that made Mas Rich. Avila Mas and other cuban exiles have been planning and scheming in this City of tropical intrigue Ever since Castro came to Power in 1959. But last years events in the communist world fuelled their dreams and added a new urgency to their efforts. Fledgling Hope has turned into bold Confidence that Cuba will soon a very soon if you listen to the talk in the Coffee houses in Little Havana a go the Way of Poland Hungary and Romania. But As they map elaborate plans for their re entry to a new Cuba the exiles often simply ignore the main obstacle in their path Castro. At 63, he appears to be in Good health and still in full control. Quot the exile Community May be out of touch with reality Quot said Lisandro Perez a sociologist at Florida International University and a respected Cuba scholar. Quot some Day Fidel is going to fall but it is not going to happen any time soon. Second this whole conflict has been personalized. The feeling Here is that when Castro Falls the whole system will come Down with him because the whole system rests on him. That is not the Case. There is a Strong commitment to the system there More than people Here  in this atmosphere there is a certain poignant wackiness to some of the feverish planning in the exile Community. The soldiers in the Everglades practice their Maneu vers while their wives and american born children wearing a Miami vice Quot to shirts wait at picnic tables in the Shade with casseroles and six packs of Coke. Quot All Over town you hear i am going to open a Mcdonald a in  the Burger King and the Sears department store franchises Are already worked out. You hear these things Quot said Siro Del Castillo a human rights activist and an exiled artist. That Cuba today is no longer the Cuba of the yellowed photographs in the family picture albums has done Little to impede the preparations. A real estate Man in Hialeah told the Miami Herald that 15 percent of his clients who Are Selling their Homes Are doing so in anticipation of a change of government in Cuba. The Sellers according to Henry Hernandez see such a surge of humanity going Back to Cuba that the Bottom will drop out of the Miami real estate Market. Quot they want to Salvage what they can a he said. Even gov. Bob Martinez trying to gain cuban american support in his re election Campaign appointed a commission on a free Cuba to study in detail the effects on Florida of a Castro free Cuba. A recent commission meeting conducted in Spanish with headphones provided for those needing simultaneous translation into English dealt with crowd control after Castro a fall. Miami police would move into operation Quot Alpha Bravo Quot in this scenario requiring 350 to 450 patrol officers to work 12-hour shifts and steer exuberant exiles into the Orange bowl before their departure for the Island 90 Miles away. Luis Sabines one of the commissioners and chairman of the latin american chamber of Commerce explained that this would prevent the expected wild celebrations from getting out of hand. Quot in the Orange bowl nothing would break a he said. Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes