“Two armed men commandeered a ferry today [April 3, 2003] in Havana and set a course for Florida, the second time in two days that Cuban hijackers have taken hostages as they tried to flee to the United States. The F.B.I. said 15 to 20 people were aboard the 45-foot government-run ferry, which runs between Havana and Casablanca, across Havana Bay. The vessel was overtaken at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday and followed by two Cuban Border Patrol vessels, the Foreign Ministry said\u2026A spokeswoman for the Coast Guard said that it was monitoring the situation and that the ferry and its occupants were the responsibility of Cuba\u2026 \u2018It gets the attention of those who are on the fence and persuades them to do the same,\u2019 said Gerardo Le Chevallier, director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a group in Washington. \u2018If the U.S. gives asylum to all who take a plane or a boat, it is like inviting others to do it, too.’\u2019 Representatives of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington did not return calls for comment\u2026 \u2018We’ve long had a very liberal policy with respect to Cubans who make it to our shores, and I’m sure Cubans in Cuba are aware of that,\u2019 said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a legal services organization in Miami. The new hijackings occur as Cuba increases pressure on people considered disloyal to the government. The Castro government recently cracked down on dissidents, arresting scores of journalists and political opponents on charges of conspiring with American diplomats. \u2018It comes at a time when there are heightened frictions between the Cuban regime and the United States,\u2019 Mariela Ferretti, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami, said of the hijackings. \u2018We have considered the possibility that these people are being manipulated in order to provoke further friction between the United States and Cuba.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n