Cuban exile who once invaded homeland gets citizenship restored

Posted on Fri, May. 21, 2004

Cuban exile who once invaded homeland gets citizenship restored

VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press


HAVANA - Antonio Zamora was a teenager when he decided to flee his native Cuba and join a U.S.-led effort to topple the island's communist government.

Now 63, the Miami-based lawyer found himself back on Cuban soil this week, attending a ceremony to restore his citizenship and that of six other Cuban exiles who participated in the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
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He says he doesn't agree with how many things work under the current regime, but he resents the United States' meddling in Cuban affairs. He came to the immigration conference, the third of its kind in a decade, to show support for an independent Cuba and make suggestions for change.

The first step, he believes, is to put politics aside and focus on improving the social and economic situation of Cubans on the island.
"There is a situation of great tension here," he said. "I think the Cuban people need some years of peace, of uninterrupted progress.
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