Freedom Tower, Miami's bastion of hope for thousands of Cuban refugees
Miami's Freedom Tower became known as 'The Refuge' to 450,000 Cuban refugees who passed through its doors from 1962 to 1974. Volunteers offered food, medical care, financial support.
To see if your ballot was rejected by Miami-Dade elections officials, you can type your name in our database. The absentee ballots of about 2,500 Miami-Dade voters were rejected for various reason.
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Last year was the safest year for air travel since 1945, according to Aviation Safety Network, a private online research group in the Netherlands. The world’s airlines reported only 23 accidents — including passenger and cargo flights — resulting in 475 fatalities in 2012, compared with the 10-year average of 34 accidents and 773 fatalities a year. The network’s database shows only two fatal commercial airline accidents in the U.S. last year, resulting in two deaths. The worst accident took place June 3 when a jetliner flown by Nigeria-based Dana Air crashed on approach to Lagos, killing 153 onboard and 10 people on the ground.
The database -- an Ellis-Island style registry -- contains the names of Cuban exiles who entered the U.S. through the Freedom Flights, between 1965 and 1973.
The unique, searchable database obtained by The Miami Herald, is believed to be the only one now available to the public.
The personal information it contains was mainly entered by immigration workers at Miami's Freedom Tower. One oddity of the list is the designation of ''Boat'' as the mode of entry -- that's because most freedom flight passengers were initially claimed by relatives in the U.S. during the Camarioca boatlift of 1965.
In such a massive list, there are errors and omissions. The Herald is asking freedom fliers to help make corrections and enhance the database by sending photos and memories from their early days in Miami, or last days in Cuba to FreedomFlights@MiamiHerald.com
Two new massacres in Venezuelan territory could raise the number of Colombians killed in recent weeks in Venezuela to at least 20, according to officials in both countries.
A plan to increase the American military presence on at least three military bases in Colombia, Washington’s top ally in Latin America, is accentuating Colombia’s already tense relations with some of its neighbors.
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