Operation Peter Pan (or Operación Pedro Pan) was a clandestine mass exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 to the United States over a two-year span from 1960 to 1962. They were sent by alarmed parents who heard rumors that Fidel Castro and the Communist party were planning to terminate parental rights and place minors in communist indoctrination centers, an unsubstantiated rumor commonly referred to as the Patria Potestad hoax.