20 on CANF board resign
By Luisa Yanez And Nancy San Martin. nsanmartin@herald.com
At least 20 more board members of the Cuban American National Foundation
publicly resigned Tuesday, widening the internal breach in the anti-Castro
organization and raising a new dispute over control of millions of dollars in a
fund reportedly created to fulfill the dying wishes of CANF founder Jorge Mas
Canosa.
Former treasurer Feliciano Foyo told reporters at a news conference that the
family of the organization's former leader removed some longtime foundation
members from the board that controls the funds two weeks ago, replacing them
with Mas family members.
"The money was meant to keep the foundation going indefinitely and pay
for its expenses by creating an endowment,'' Foyo declared.
Foyo, a close friend of Mas Canosa, contended that Mas Canosa gave the funds
to the organization in the form of 200,000 shares in his telecommunications
company, MasTec.
At the time of Mas Canosa's death, Foyo placed the stocks' value at about $5
million. When the stock market was at its peak in the late 1990s, their value
tripled, Foyo said. He estimated the value today at about $9 million.
MasTec's Tuesday closing price on 200,000 shares was about $2.5 million.
The ill feelings arose from documentation filed with the state in late July.
According to annual corporation reports filed with the Secretary of State in
Tallahasee on Sept 5, 2000, the officers and director of the foundation -- who
oversaw the funds -- were listed as Foyo, former foundation chairman Alberto M.
Hernández, president Francisco "Pepe'' Hernández and board
directors Tony Costa, Elpidio Núñez and Delfín Pernas.
At least three of those officers resigned Tuesday, including Dr. Alberto
Hernández, a close ally of Mas Canosa as well as his personal physician.
Foyo said that when new documents were filed with the Secretary of State's
office last year, Mas Canosa's widow, Irma, and two of their sons, Juan Carlos
and Jose Ramon, were listed as additions.
But in corporation paperwork filed July 25, the non-family directors have
all been deleted. "When we saw that, we realized the system had changed,''
Foyo said.
DISPUTED
The board's current leadership angrily disputed his comments.
"I cannot believe that statement came out of Feliciano Foyo. I'm sure
that's a misrepresentation of what he said,'' said Francisco Hernández.
"This is a complex issue that came out of a need for a change in the
status of the foundation required by IRS . . . He [Foyo] knows exactly why
whatever changes were made, the reasons they were made.''
The Internal Revenue Service audited CANF and advised the foundation to
change its name to avoid confusion with another foundation, the Cuban American
Foundation. Foyo said the arrangement was secret. Hernández declined to
give details of the IRS deal.
Jorge Mas Santos could not be reached for comment on Foyo's allegations. In
a press conference earlier Tuesday, Mas Santos said if steps taken by the
foundation were deemed controversial, "so be it.''
In 1998 the organization created the Jorge Mas Canosa Freedom Fund, as was
requested by the founder before his death. At the time, the reported size of the
fund was $8 million, but Jorge Mas Santos -- the founder's oldest son -- said
that the family would contribute $2 for each dollar raised, with the hope of
reaching a value of $20 million.
The purpose was to fund projects "to continue to protect the ideals of
freedom, democracy and respect for human dignity,'' Mas Santos said at the time.
Among those who announced his resignation Tuesday was Luis Zúñiga,
who for years has provided testimony on human rights abuses in Cuba before the
United Nations on behalf of the foundation.
'PRINCIPLES'
"We are resigning because of principles,'' said Zúñiga,
surrounded by the other dissident members as he read from a "declaration''
signed by all outlining several reasons for leaving the organization.
The most prominent issue was what they described as the dictatorial style of
Jorge Mas Santos, the current foundation chairman.
"Over the course of the last two years, we . . . have worked arduously
to maintain cohesion within the foundation and preserve the principles that
served as the basis for its creation,'' the declaration stated.
"Notwithstanding our efforts, the organization has taken an
undemocratic path antithetical to these very principles . . . We will not
continue to engage in futile battles that do not advance the cause of a free
Cuba. The battle has been too long. There is only one enemy -- the dictatorship
that enslaves Cuba.''
Dissenters said their decision to leave came after long hours of
soul-searching and discussions over ways to settle the dispute internally. They
stressed it was not the result of a generational gap nor the public endorsement
of the upcoming Latin Grammy's by Jorge Mas Santos.
According to foundation officials, the board consisted of some 170 members
before the resignations.
Pilot might return today
Flight to Cuba will result in charges
By Luisa Yanez And Daniel A. Grech. lyanez@herald.com
The wayward pilot who flew from Marathon to Cuba last week may return to
Florida as early as today -- and find himself facing grand-theft charges.
Milo John Reese, 55, of Reno, Nev., is scheduled to arrive this afternoon at
Miami International Airport, government sources told The Herald.
Reese's return to the United States may mark the beginning of his legal
problems.
"Hopefully, he's going to jail when he gets back,'' said Bryan Hanson,
general manager of Paradise Aviation, the flight school that owns the four-seat
Cessna 172 Reese flew to Cuba.
Monroe County sheriff's deputies have a warrant out for Reese related to the
theft of the $60,000 Cessna, sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said Tuesday.
Aloyma Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami,
declined to comment on whether Reese will be detained for illegally entering
Cuba.
Reese, an anti-bordello crusader who once staged his own disappearance, said
in a radio transmission during that flight that he had lost his way.
Still wearing his Pizza Hut deliveryman uniform, he flew to the island and
crash-landed on a rocky beach.
Cuban authorities kept him at a naval hospital for several days. U.S.
Interests Section personnel in Havana arranged for Reese to stay at an
undisclosed hotel for the last few days while Cuban authorities investigated the
incident.
"I think they determined that this was not politically motivated,''
said a government source speaking on condition of anonymity.
Reese's wife of four years, Susan, said this week that her husband is
manic-depressive and was being treated at Nevada Mental Health Institute in
Sparks, Nev., when he decided to leave the area.
In December, she said, her husband was prescribed a new medication, valproic
acid, which is used to treat the manic phase of bipolar disorder.
But the four pills he took twice a day upset his stomach. In March, his
doctor lowered his dosage to two pills a day.
Then the couple ran into a rough financial patch, Susan Reese said. They had
trouble starting the car. The vacuum cleaner broke down. Their landlord demanded
a $400 deposit on their Rottweiler-German shepherd puppy.
"That night John didn't sleep,'' Susan Reese said. "The next
morning, he drank coffee and glared. He was under more stress than any time in
life, and he runs away from stress.''
That day, Reese quit his job at a mine loading crushed rock used for kitty
litter and drove to Las Vegas. He left the bottle of valproic acid on the
kitchen table.
He frequently sent his wife postcards from Las Vegas and called twice a day.
And he took flying lessons.
"When he has a manic episode, he goes out flying,'' said Susan Reese.
She and her brother Robert Scher called flight schools in Las Vegas and had him
grounded. So Reese got into his aquamarine 1991 Suzuki Swift and left the state,
ending up in Marathon.
Scher said he also attempted to have his brother-in-law grounded in
Marathon, leaving two seven-minute messages on July 6 on the answering machine
of the Marathon airport.
It's unclear if anyone heard the messages.
Since Reese left Reno in June, the FAA offices in Los Angeles and Oklahoma
City have sent letters to his Reno home asking for his medical records.
"We have recently received information which indicates a reasonable
basis for redetermination of your ability to meet the medical standards
prescribed,'' the letter from Los Angeles said.
Herald staff writer Jennifer Babson contributed to this
report.
Fidel Castro's defiance undimmed at his 75th birthday
By ANITA SNOW. Associated Press Writer
HAVANA -- (AP) -- He looked paler and sweatier than usual, and one leg
seemed to trouble him a bit. But otherwise Fidel Castro seemed his usual robust
self as he marched at the head of a parade to celebrate his communist
revolution.
The world's last Cold War-era communist leader turns 75 on Monday. He has
ruled Cuba for 42 years and outlasted 10 American presidents. His trademark
features -- the olive-green cap and uniform, the graying beard -- make him one
of the world's most recognizable figures.
In June he made international headlines by briefly fainting while delivering
one of his familiar finger-jabbing, lectern-pounding speeches in mid-80-degree F
(mid-20-degree C) heat. Suddenly a world grown used to Castro had to imagine a
Cuba without him.
But he insists he's "entero'' -- in one piece -- and seemed determined
to prove it as he strode 1 1/2 miles (2 1/2 kilometers) along the Malecon,
Havana's seaside boulevard lined by towering, dilapidated apartment houses, on
July 26, the 48th anniversary of the start of his long march to power.
Government officials say "El Comandante'' didn't sleep a wink the
previous night, working until dawn before joining the parade with flag in hand,
and later addressing university students in a park.
Castro's enemies have predicted his imminent demise for more than a decade,
spreading rumors of prostate cancer, heart troubles, Parkinson's disease,
stroke. "This year -- Havana!'' they proclaim confidently.
Castro is said to exercise regularly, avoid cigars and drink in moderation.
After his fainting spell -- "a momentary fatigue,'' his aides called it --
he told his enemies it was too soon for them to celebrate. "I am so sorry
that they have not been able to drink all the bottles of rum and whiskey,'' he
said.
Other communist countries -- China, North Korea, Vietnam and Laos -- are led
by men who reached the very top as the Cold War was ending, or well after it was
over. Castro alone harks back to an earlier time -- of John F. Kennedy and the
missile crisis, of exported revolution and Ernesto "Che'' Guevara.
But while he retains the stamina of a much younger man, the years show.
"He's not frail, by any means, but the guy is mortal and he cannot do
the things that he used to,'' said Wayne Smith, who has been watching Castro's
career since he was a young State Department officer at the American Embassy in
Havana in the late 1950s.
He can still talk for hours standing up, but now sometimes fumbles with
notes and repeats himself. He'll remember a detail from decades ago but forget a
much more recent one.
Nevertheless, a Castro speech can still make fascinating listening. He tends
to start out sounding weak and old, and pick up youth and vigor as he
progresses. He jokes, he scorns, he praises and denounces. He reels off
statistics about live births and doctors per capita in an effort to show that
the revolution is a success. A voracious reader with a Jesuit upbringing, he
displays a vast vocabulary.
He invariably winds up roaring: "Socialismo o muerte! Patria o muerte!
Venceremos!'' (Socialism or death! Homeland or death! We shall overcome!)
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz overcame huge setbacks to end up as Cuba's
president of the Council of State, president of the Council of Ministers and
first secretary of the Communist Party. Although some sources put his birthdate
one year later, his official date of birth is Aug. 13, 1926.
He led his first uprising in 1953, another in 1956. Both ended in disaster,
and after the second, dictator Fulgencio Batista broadcast that Castro had been
killed.
Yet by New Year's Day of 1959 Batista had fled, and Castro and his rebels
marched victoriously into Havana a week later.
Aghast at the prospect of a potential Soviet beachhead just 90 miles (145
kilometers) from American shores, Washington set out to topple the new regime.
But Castro stood up to everything the Yanquis threw his way: a CIA-trained exile
army foiled at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, numerous assassination attempts, a U.S.
embargo that is still in effect.
"Castro probably looks back with a sense of accomplishment for
resisting everything fate sent him,'' said Smith, a Cuba specialist with the
Washington-based Center for International Policy. "He brought about a
revolution, he defied the United States, he survived the Soviet breakup.''
But the workers' paradise he preached fared no better than in other
communist states. The planned economy led to chronic shortages and rationing.
Dissident voices were silenced, the media controlled.
As long as Cuba had the Soviet Union as a patron, it had a dependable source
of food and petroleum. It sent out doctors to help South America's poor, and
soldiers to fight in African independence wars.
But when the Soviet empire fell apart in 1991, Cuba abandoned sponsorship of
armed struggle abroad and focused on overcoming a severe financial crisis caused
by the loss of socialist trading partners.
Recovery has been slow, painful and hampered by the U.S. embargo. Dreams of
egalitarianism have given way to the reality that, for ordinary Cubans,
prosperity depends on access to U.S. dollars, from the tourism industry or from
exiled relatives.
The Bush administration says it will not relax the embargo even slightly
until Cuba holds free elections and releases political prisoners, who number
several hundred, according to rights activists.
Castro can still rally the masses, as was demonstrated in the case of Elian
Gonzalez, the 7-year-old Cuban castaway who was rescued off U.S. shores.
After a custody battle in U.S. courts and a huge Castro-led campaign to
bring the boy home, Elian was returned to his father in Cuba and Castro won a
propaganda victory.
Now he is waging what he calls the "Battle of Ideas'' -- a state of
permanent protest against U.S. policies toward the island. Castro's brother and
designated successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro, leads an anti-U.S. rally
every weekend in a different community.
While considered more ideologically hard-line than his older brother, the
younger Castro nevertheless seems willing to experiment with economic change, as
long it stays within a socialist framework.
Raul Castro has pushed economic self-sufficiency, especially in domestic
food production, since the loss of Soviet bloc trade. His successful cleanup of
military finances and accounting procedures more than a decade ago is now used
throughout the government.
Although lacking his brother's charisma, Raul Castro enjoys a strong power
base in the military, along with his revolutionary roots.
Raul Castro dismisses concerns that Cuba's communist government cannot
survive without his brother's charisma.
"There will be no problem,'' he said in May. "We, of course, want
Fidel to live many more years. But eternity is not possible.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
