Guantanamo's Capacity for Cubans to Be Tripled : Refugees: The island detention center will hold 60,000, the White House says. Move will bring 1,700 military dependents at the base back to the U.S.

By ART PINE

Aug. 25, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — The Clinton Administration, racing to deflect the continuing torrent of Cuban refugees, said Wednesday that it is expanding its detention facilities at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba to hold as many as 60,000 people--three times the camps’ present capacity.

The move, unveiled at the White House by Defense Secretary William J. Perry, will force the Pentagon to bring home some 1,700 dependents of U.S. naval personnel now living at the base to avoid overtaxing the water and sewage systems.

The construction of the additional detention facilities, which Perry told reporters should be completed by the end of next week, is designed to help persuade would-be refugees that Washington is serious about denying them entry into the United States and that they should stay home.

Perry and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who appeared with him at a news conference, also served notice that the United States is prepared to keep refugees at the detention camps “indefinitely,” even if the standoff between Washington and Havana continues for years.

“Do not risk your lives,” Reno warned in a message aimed at the refugees and their relatives who live in South Florida. “You should not expect that you will come to the United States. You are going to Guantanamo or other safe havens, and you will not be processed.”

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers later reiterated that caution: “All of the refugees picked up at sea are taken to Guantanamo,” she said. “There is no plan to take or house any refugees here in the United States-- period. “

The developments came as the flood of Cuban refugees continued unabated, with federal authorities reporting some grisly scenes in which bodies of refugees have been found floating near makeshift rafts, apparently after the emigrants died of dehydration or illness.

The Coast Guard reported that it recovered 2,791 rafters in the Florida Straits by late Wednesday, after picking up 3,253 on Tuesday, the highest one-day number since the Mariel boat lift of 1980, when Cuba intentionally shipped about 125,000 refugees to Florida.

Officials said that the expansion of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, on Cuba’s southeast shore, would involve a major undertaking by the military, including a sharp increase in the number of military security forces on the island and additional support troops to take care of the refugee population.

Moreover, while Perry said that the camps might be expanded to accommodate 40,000 or more refugees, military officers said later that the Navy had received orders to provide for between 45,000 and 60,000 refugees if necessary--up from a capacity of 23,000 now.

Officials said as many as 8,000 more Marines and soldiers will be needed to provide security for the base. The Pentagon already is shipping some 600 Marines and military police troops to the naval base.

The expansion represents a staggering increase from current levels. The detention camps at Guantanamo currently house 14,000 Haitians and 2,000 Cubans. Another 7,000 Cubans are en route aboard U.S. vessels and should arrive by Friday. Although Perry declined to provide any figures, officials said that the expansion is likely to prove costly.

In her remarks Wednesday, Reno confirmed that the Administration is working out new procedures to make it easier for Cubans to emigrate through traditional channels by applying for a visa through the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

Also Wednesday, the Administration continued its hard-line stance against Cuban President Fidel Castro, rejecting a Cuban overture to begin broad-scale U.S.-Cuban talks designed to work out a compromise.

Earlier in the day, Fernando Remirez de Estenoz Barciela, Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations, said that Havana would be willing to negotiate over the emigrant issue but only if Washington agrees to discuss ending the U.S. embargo of Cuba and abandoning the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

Noting that the Administration has negotiated with other countries whose regimes it has opposed, Remirez called U.S. policy on Cuba “an additional example of the type of double standard that we have so frequently seen here.”

A few minutes later, however, Peter Tarnoff, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, rejected Remirez’s proposal, telling reporters at the White House that “we see nothing to be gained from the kind of talks you’re referring to.”

“It should be clear after 35 years to Fidel Castro and his government that the way he has been managing the affairs of the island is a failure,” Tarnoff said. “He is being told that by his own people. That’s why they want to leave.”

Perry also warned Cuba not to worsen the exodus by encouraging would-be refugees to enter Guantanamo Bay naval base through the back gate, saying that the United States would “regard this as . . . an unfriendly act . . . and would take appropriate action.”

Officials also indicated that, unlike its policy regarding Haitian refugees brought to Guantanamo Bay, the United States would not actively pressure Cubans to go back to Havana.

The Administration’s hard-line tone toward the Castro regime apparently is designed to bolster the impression that it is not going to relent on its present policy, no matter how many Cubans set sail for U.S. shores over the next few weeks.

Officials had hoped that merely announcing reversal of the 35-year-old policy of admitting Cuban refugees without question would stem the tide of emigrants toward Florida. So far, however, the numbers have been rising, not falling.

In announcing its actions, the Administration effectively said that it is willing to keep the detention camps indefinitely--until Cuba adopts a democratic form of government and agrees to repatriate them.

Reno’s tough talk drew a mixed reaction in Miami’s Cuban American community, which already is divided over the Administration’s new approach. Many Cuban Americans believe that the flotilla must be stopped, yet few are eager to see Cuban rafters detained indefinitely.

Cesar Odio, Miami’s city manager, lauded the decision, saying: “We should be happy to have a President who stands firm behind his decisions.”

But hard-line Spanish-language radio commentator Armando Perez Roura of Radio Mambi condemned the detention policy, calling on the Administration to impose a total blockade of the island. He called Castro’s failure to stop the rafters “an act of war.”

The U.S. effort to deal with the flood of Cubans--combined with the two-month-old blockade of Haiti and detention of Haitian refugees--has drawn a sizable armada to the region, straining Navy and Coast Guard ships and aircraft to the limits.

As of late Wednesday, the Coast Guard had 32 full-size cutters and 35 smaller boats on patrol in or en route to the Florida Straits, along with 14 search aircraft. The Navy has 13 warships either in the area or on their way.

Adm. Robert Kramek, the Coast Guard commandant, told reporters in Key West, Fla., that, although the service had been able to siphon vessels away from drug interdiction and fishery law enforcement temporarily, it could not go on indefinitely without hurting those areas.

“We are not being overwhelmed,” he said, but “obviously if you do it a very long time, it has a detrimental effect on all of your other missions.” At the same time, he added optimistically, “I’m fairly confident that we may not have to keep it up that long.”

Times special correspondent Mike Clary in Miami contributed to this story.