Freedom Flights

Freedom Flights
Part of the Cuban exodus
Cuban refugees exiting a Freedom Flight in Miami.
Date1965 – 1973
Location Cuba  United States
CauseDangers of the Camarioca boatlift
Budget$12,000,000
Organised byGovernment of Cuba
Government of the United States
Participants300,000 Cuban refugees
Outcome
  • Cuban refugees arrive in the United States
  • "Brain drain" in Cuba

Freedom Flights (known in Spanish as Los vuelos de la libertad) transported Cubans to Miami twice daily, five times per week from 1965 to 1973.[1][2][3] Its budget was about $12 million and it brought an estimated 300,000 refugees, making it the "largest airborne refugee operation in American history."[1][4][5] The Freedom Flights were an important and unusual chapter of cooperation in the history of Cuban-American foreign relations, which is otherwise characterized by mutual distrust. The program changed the ethnic makeup of Miami and fueled the growth of the Cuban-American enclave there.

  1. ^ a b Anton, Alex; Hernandez, Roger (2002). Cubans in America. New York: Kensington Books.
  2. ^ Philipson, Lorrin; Llerena, Rafael (1980). Freedom Flights. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780394511054.
  3. ^ "Cuba Refugees Land in US; First Since May". Los Angeles Times. Miami, FL. December 12, 1972.
  4. ^ Eire, Carlos; Montaner, Carlos; Ojito, Mirta; Pintado, Carlos; Yanez, Luisa (2010). The Exile Experience. Miami: HCP/Aboard Publishing.
  5. ^ "The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966: Mirando por los ojos de Don Quijote o Sancho Panza?". Harvard Law Review. 114 (3). 2001.

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