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Camp authorities are indirectly responsible for much of the violence. To keep order in the camp, they have depended mostly on a Cuban security force armed with broom handles, tree limbs and even a few billy clubs and knives. Originally the group was supposed to be small and well organized, but scores of hardened thugs stole the force's symbol of authority—purple jackets donated by the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater—and proclaimed themselves a part of the security force called the Warhawks, after the school's nickname. Some of the Warhawks then used their weapons to rob and terrorize other refugees. According to Thomas Grauman, a former social worker at the camp, "the toughest, meanest men" joined the force, which later changed its name to the Águilas (Spanish for eagles) but not its terrorist tactics. Says Fernando Machinena, who once served as interpreter for the Cubans' governing council: "The camp officials have let the Águilas have their own way. They are so afraid of a confrontation that they let almost anything go." While most of the refugees are law abiding, camp officials insist that they place in detention the handful caught doing anything illegal. But U.S. Marshall Robert Thompson, who is in charge of security within the camp, says of the Cuban security force: "I'm not sure who directs them or who controls them. It has never been quite clear to me."
Monroe County Sheriff Ray Harris reports that his deputies catch six to twelve escapees every day, some of them in the act of burglarizing nearby houses. Says he: "Some of the people around here are getting pretty riled." Tensions will be relieved soon: the camp is scheduled to close by the end of September, when all of the 14,000 Cubans still remaining in centers throughout the country are to be concentrated in Fort Chaffee, Ark. But for the great majority of Fort McCoy's refugees, the move probably will mean only that they will be submerged in a larger pool of Cubans who are seeking U.S. sponsors Slim as their chances have been for getting out of Fort McCoy, the hardened refugees from Wisconsin may find that their prospects of being released from Fort Chaffee are even worse.