Cuba may use force to end armed standoff on ferry boat

HAVANA -- Cuban authorities warned Thursday that force may be needed against armed hijackers who have seized a ferry boat with nearly 50 people on board in a bid to reach U.S. shores.\nAfter a 30-mile chase into international waters on Wednesday, the ferry was escorted back to the Cuban port of Mariel, just west of Havana. Cuban officials said the men, who were armed with knives and pistols, have threaten passengers and demanded enough fuel to reach the United States.\n"Force will be used if the hostages' situation becomes critical," said a statement read on state television at midday.\nPresident Fidel Castro arrived at Mariel in the late morning Thursday and was still in the area late in the afternoon when an ambulance was seen speeding away from the scene, international journalists said.\nShortly thereafter, three black Mercedes Benz sedans -- the same configuration that Castro always travels in -- left. They were followed by at least seven other ambulances and a military convoy of soldiers and special police.\nThere was no information about what was transpiring between government negotiators and the hijackers. After the vehicles left, the only movement seen from afar were a few people walking around the ferry.\nA statement read on state television at midday said "force will be used if the hostages'situation becomes critical."\nHijackers agreed to release only three of the estimated 50 passengers who were aboard the boat when it was commandeered from Havana Bay, the government said.\n"To all other requests they have responded only with their demands for fuel," the statement said.\nThe Cuban Coast Guard chased the ferry into international waters early Wednesday. The FBI flew negotiators to a nearby U.S. Coast Guard cutter to offer help to the Cubans as they tried to persuade the hijackers to give up. Cuban authorities, however, handled the situation alone, officials from both countries said.\nThe seizing of the vessel came a day after a Cuban passenger plane was hijacked to Key West, Fla., by a man who allegedly threatened to blow up the aircraft with two grenades that later turned out to be fake. Another Cuban plane was hijacked to Key West less than two weeks before.\nThe string of hijackings coincides with a new crackdown on dissents in Cuba and rising tensions with the United States. Trials began Thursday for the first of 80 dissidents charged with conspiring with U.S. officials.\nIn the past, Cubans have taken advantage of periods of U.S.-Cuban friction to try to flee the island.\nIn a highly unusual move, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana on Wednesday night warned Cubans not to undertake any more hijackings, telling them in a message read on communist-run television they would be prosecuted and lose the right to seek American residency.\nThe message by James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section, demonstrated growing worries about the possibility such hijackings could end in violence or spark a migration crisis.\nSeveral ferry boats were hijacked to the United States in 1994, when some 35,000 Cubans headed toward Florida in dilapidated boats and rafts. The wave of illegal migrants subsided only after the United States agreed to send back Cubans picked up at sea.