There are a few Americans who left the USA for the USSR during the Cold War. Did any American ever leave the US for Cuba? Does Cuba have a policy for welcoming defecting Americans?
Herman Marks left the USA for Cuba to fight for Castro during the revolution.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/jul04/240917.asp
There’s currently some rich CEO/executive type living out his retirement in Cuba to avoid inditement in the U.S. There are also a few Americans accused of radical/terrorist type activities in the sixties who are still hanging out in Cuba. I distinctly remember the administration listing this in one of its complaints against Cuba as being a terrorist state for harboring these individuals.
Sorry for the…
wait for it…
HIJACK!
A former colleague of mine was actually ON A PLANE that got hijacked to Havana during his time as a cryptographer for the US Army. I think it was a Columbus, OH to Cincinnati type of flight, but they refueled and went down there.
According to my friend, they:
- Arrested the hijacker and dragged him away in manacles
- Herded all the passengers into an airport bar
- They all got loaded and another plane came eventually to take them back.
They couldn’t leave the general vicinity of the terminal for the duration, so they got toasted and headed home after a few hours.
Hijacks, apparently, were FUN back in the old days. Now they’re not so laissez-faire.
Are you thinking of Robert Vesco, of mutual fund theft and Nixon slush fund fame? Yeah, after stints in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, half the Carribbean (including buying an island and trying to make it a country) he ended up in Cuba.
Turns out, he was a crook there too. Cuba put him in jail for some swindling having to do with the pharmaceutical industry in 1995, and as best I know that’s the last anyone heard from him.
Dunno whether he was really a “defector” though – more like a "guy looking for a place where John Law (U.S. and European branches) couldn’t get at him. He’d be well done with his stretch at Allenwood by now. Heh.