Fort Chaffee crisis
The Fort Chaffee crisis occurred during the Mariel boatlift in 1980 when over 19,000 Cuban refugees were detained at Fort Chaffee. They could not be released into the public because they were not United States citizens. After a promise of quick release many processing setbacks occurred and many refugees remained still detained at the center. Frustrated with the conditions at the facility and the slow processing many refugees rioted, 62 refugees were injured and 46 others were arrested. Refugees at the center would go on to refer to the riot as El Domingo. After the riots Governor Bill Clinton put heavy fortifications at the center. Clinton would lose the later Arkansas election after his opponent would use the incident against him.
Background
Refugees enter Fort Chaffee
President Jimmy Carter had recently accepted Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift to enter the United States. The Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center had previously been used as a detention center for Vietnamese refugees and Carter negotiated with Arkansas governor Bill Clinton for the use of the center to process Cuban refugees. At first Clinton feared the plan, and instead requested that they be processed on an aircraft carrier. He would also argue "We still have a base at Guantanamo, don't we? And there must be a gate in the fence that divides it from Cuba. Take them to Guantanamo, open the door, and march them back into Cuba." President Carter would still order the use of the base and Cuban refugees began to be transported to the center.In May 1980 around 19,000 Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift were airlifted to the Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center for immigration processing. The first 128 Cubans brought to the base by plane were met by a trespassing klansman on the tarmac who warned officials to not let them in, claiming they were criminals. By May 20 around 20,000 Cubans were being held at the base.
Complications in processing
Despite wishes to gain freedom in America, many of the refugees were held for months at the base. Refugees were not allowed to leave the base unless they had a sponsor; it became incredibly hard for refugees to find sponsors due to the branding of Mariel refugees as criminals. Locals and members of the Ku Klux Klan also demonstrated against the Cuban refugees outside of the base, angering the refugees inside.Conflict
Escape and standoff
On May 26 hundreds of refugees escaped the base through an unguarded gate. The refugees couldn't be captured since they were technically not illegal aliens. Clinton would later recall "I was afraid people in the area were going to start shooting them. There had been a run on handguns and rifles in every gun store within fifty miles of Chaffee." As the group of refugees walked to Barling armed citizens, some on horseback, faced down the escapees to stop their movement. The police intervened to stop violence and asked for a Spanish speaking interpreter. Eduardo Gamarra a Bolivian born refugee re-locator official was brought in to interpret. Gamarra pleaded the refugees sit down to talk, warning the residents might open fire. The refugees talked of their frustrations in not finding sponsors so they could leave the base and Gamarra reassured them he would help to find sponsors, the refugees decided to return to the base. As the refugees returned to the base's fence the angered citizens charged the refugees pushing some over the fence and forcing them back into the base.Later that night Ku Klux Klan members carrying torches marched by the base with signs saying "Kill the Communist Criminals" while local armed vigilantes circled the base with pickup trucks. Gamarra would recall that later that night the local news would refer to the standoff as a sit-in protest staged by the refugees.