Cuba blames U.S. for dead stowaways

HAVANA, Cuba -- Cuba has blamed the death of two young jet stowaways on a U.S. immigration law which it says lures people to take lethal risks.

The corpses of the two Cuban military cadets who died in mid-air after stowing away in the undercarriage of a London-bound British Airways jet are being flown back on Wednesday to the Caribbean island.

The case of Alberto Vazquez, 17, and Maikel Fonseca, 16, who hid in the Boeing 777's wheel before take-off at Havana airport on Christmas Eve, has shocked Cubans and brought a personal investigation by President Fidel Castro.

"These adolescents are the latest victims of the Cuban Adjustment Act," a statement by Cuban authorities said, referring to a 1966 U.S. law which gives preferential treatment for residence to Cuban immigrants reaching American soil.

Cuba says the law stimulates dangerous illegal immigration bids -- mainly by sea, but sometimes also by air -- although U.S. officials respond by saying that Castro's authoritarian political system and economic failures are driving people out.

The two stowaways, who took advantage of the darkness, heavy rain and long grass to evade perimeter guards at Havana airport, had dreamed of living in the U.S., according to a message left behind by one of them.

But after dying presumably from freezing temperatures and lack of oxygen, their bodies were later discovered in Britain, one in a Surrey field after falling out of the aircraft, and the other at London's Gatwick airport.

"Bitter and painful events like these, which have again stirred the Cuban people, will only cease with the end of that monstrous law, which has cost countless lives," Cuba's statement added.

The youths' case was the third known incident of deaths in the last 12 months involving Cuban nationals who have hidden in the undercarriage of Europe-bound planes.

Reuters contributed to this report.