38). Castro's belief was that if he let enough of them go that would mean that there would be that much less trouble for him. Castro was also very smart in allowing whom he let go to the United States. He didn't allow certain individuals to leave Cuba such as technicians and professionals with skills that were vital to the government. The freedom flights continued for some time, and many tried to get their family members out of Cuba as soon as possible because they felt that it may not last. Their fears came true on August 1971, as in typical Castro fashion he began to cut the flights until they no longer flew and the only ones that were allowed to leave were the "gusanos", the sick and the elderly and even those "mercy" flights ended on April 1973 (Garcia pgs. 38-43). .
These first two batches of immigrants that came to the states cannot really be called immigrants because most of them would not have left Cuba if the political situation were not that of tyranny. The Cuban community considered themselves more like exiles, not immigrants, refugees. Not long after the freedom flights stopped the third wave of immigrants came, but this exodus was not very positive towards the public view of Cuban community. This third wave of immigrants would forever be known as marielitos.
This third wave of Cubans was far removed from the first two. This wave brought murderers, thieves, and other felons to the United States. This wave began in April, 1980, when a group of six Cuban counter-revolutionaries drove to the Peruvian Embassy in Havana with the purpose of seeking asylum; when the bus they had commandeered headed for the embassy gates and accelerated, the Cubans officially guarding the embassy opened fire on the bus, and a ricocheting bullet hit and killed one of the guards. The Peruvians refused to turn the dissenters over to the Cuban authorities, as a result, several thousand Cubans descended on the embassy.
