Question 27

Cuba's president claimed their documents had been obtained illegally.

Most of the passengers were denied permission to enter Cuba because the Cuban president invalidated their landing certificates, asserting that these documents had been sold by a corrupt government official.

A) Cuba had already accepted all the refugees it could for that year.

This option is incorrect because the reason for the denial of entry was not based on a quota of accepted refugees, but rather on the invalidation of the passengers' landing certificates. The extract does not mention any limit on the number of refugees Cuba could accept at that time.

B) Cuba and Germany did not have diplomatic relations at that time.

This option is also incorrect. The passage does not reference diplomatic relations between Cuba and Germany as a factor in denying entry to the passengers. The denial was specifically related to the status of their landing certificates, not diplomatic issues.

C) Cuba's president claimed their documents had been obtained illegally.

This option is correct as it directly relates to the situation described in the extract. The Cuban president invalidated the passengers' landing certificates, claiming they were obtained through corrupt means, which was the primary reason for their denial of entry.

D) It was feared that admitting them would create tension with Germany.

This option is incorrect because the passage does not suggest that concerns about diplomatic tension with Germany played any role in the denial of entry. The focus is on the invalid documents rather than political apprehensions.

Conclusion

The correct answer, that Cuba's president claimed the passengers' documents had been obtained illegally, is definitively supported by the passage. Other options fail because they either misinterpret the reasons for the denial or introduce unrelated factors. The extract clearly highlights the issue with the landing certificates as the primary obstacle faced by the St. Louis passengers.