Cuban officials have engaged in a tense stand-off with a group of armed men who held 40 hostages aboard a hijacked ferry that returned to Cuba after failing to reach the United States.
The eight to 10 hijackers demanded to be given enough fuel to travel to Florida, after the coastal ferry was towed back to Cuba following a 20-hours ordeal in the open seas, Cuban authorities said.
"Force will be used if the situation of the hostages becomes critical," the authorities said in a statement as President Fidel Castro arrived at the port of Mariel, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Havana, where the passenger ferry was anchored a few meters off the docks.
The unusual hijacking came barely a day after a man forced a Cuban domestic flight to divert to Florida.
Authorities said in a statement they were in radio contact with the men, who repeatedly refused to make any concessions beyond agreeing "to release two women and a man in delicate health conditions."
The men, armed with knives and guns, commandeered the boat before dawn Wednesday, as it was ferrying commuters between Havana and outlying areas along the Havana Bay.
Forty passengers, including six to eight children, were on board the 50-foot (15-meter) ferry, in addition to the hijackers.
The boat, built for coastal navigation, headed out for the open seas yesterday and eventually drifted in international waters 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Cuban coast.
Authorities said the ferry was towed to Mariel after drifting at sea for 20 hours with no food or water on board. The hijackers agreed to return to Cuba in the hope of getting enough fuel to reach the United States, just over 160 kilometers (100 miles) away.
Overnight, the US Coast Guard monitored the vessel, but neither US nor Cuban authorities initially appeared willing to assume jurisdiction over the ferry.
AFP