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CUBAN DETAINEE HOSTAGE CRISIS ENDS WITH SURPRISE AGREEMENT TO DEPORT DETAINEES TO CUBA  
On December 13, 1999, the warden and three deputies at the St. Martin Parish Jail in Louisiana were taken hostage by five Cuban detainees.  One of the hostage takers was being held on criminal charges; the other four were INS detainees.  They demanded their release from prison and their deportation to Cuba.  This would ordinarily have already occurred, but the US and Cuba have no deportation agreement, and no third country contacted would accept the men.  After a weeklong standoff, the situation was resolved with the surprising news that the detainees would be deported to Cuba.  
The situation began as the detainees were returning to the inside of the jail following exercise time.  The men used homemade knives to take the guards by surprise.  One of the deputies was released Monday afternoon, shortly after being taken hostage, and another was released during the week.  By the end of the crisis, most of the inmates were removed from the jail, leaving only five female inmates, who were also being held hostage. 
A Miami-based group, Mothers for Freedom, that rose to prominence earlier this year after supporting Cuban detainees on a hunger strike at Krome Detention Center, received a letter from one of the Louisiana detainees in late November.  A member of the group, Ruby Feria, says they forwarded the letter to INS Commissioner Doris Meissner.  The INS confirms receipt of the letter, but did nothing because it had received no complaints about treatment of detainees at the facility.   
This is not the first time Cuban detainees have taken matters into their own hands.  In 1987, riots at two major facilities in Oakdale, Louisiana and Atlanta, Georgia used for housing Cuban detainees led to the current practice of dispersing detainees throughout local jails.  Sixty percent of the 17,000 people in INS custody are kept at local jails, with the federal government paying between  and  a day for each detainee.  
The deportation of these men to Cuba is a surprise, but not unheard of.  In 1984, talks between the US and Cuba produced a list designating 2,700 people who arrived in the US during the 1980 Mariel boatlift as career criminals.  Since then, 1,400 people have been returned to Cuba.  The hostage takers are being deported under this mechanism