• Submitted by: admin
• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
• Destinations
• history
• international
• North America
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 01 / 18 / 2009

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Almost 25 years ago, he smuggled a pistol onto a commercial flight, diverted the plane to Havana and spent 13 1/2 years in a Cuban prison for air piracy.

Now the Mount Vernon, N.Y., native has written to President-elect Barack Obama seeking a pardon, hoping U.S.-Cuba relations will improve and he'll be able to come home.

Others among the more than 70 American fugitives in Cuba fear the opposite - that a thaw in the nearly 50-year-old freeze between neighbors will put them within the reach of U.S. law.

(AP)