Pure hypocrisy from all sides.(The Orlando Sentinel)

Byline: Myriam Marquez

The 1951 Chevy truck chugged along on a pontoon of floating steel drums over the Florida Strait for more than a day. It was the most ingenious plan ever hatched by Cubans desperate to leave the communist-ruled island.

The 12 Cubans figured that, even if they didn't reach Florida and the U.S. Coast Guard caught them at sea, their contraption was so outrageous, their creativity so amazing, that the United States would be hard-pressed to send them back.

They figured wrong.

So did another group of Cubans accused of hijacking a Cuban government boat just a few days earlier. The U.S. government repatriated that group back to the island, too, after sealing a deal in which Cuba promised not to impose sentences of more than 10 years for each hijacker. Having summarily executed by firing squad three young black Cubans who had hijacked a ferry earlier this year, Cuban officials clearly are taking the heat. But so is President Bush.

When it comes right down to it, the Bush administration hasn't done anything innovative on Cuba. It's the same old U.S. response after 44 years of Fidel Castro taking charge. The same old grubbing for the exile community's votes, a policy that hasn't produced any more freedom for Cubans.

The embargo and the travel ban remain the status quo, helping Castro snooker many Cubans into believing that it's all Uncle Sam's fault for the island's lousy economy, even though Castro's Marxist policies are to blame for a country in shambles.