CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Envoy differs from predecessor in style, not substance

By Anita Snow, Associated Press. Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2005.

HAVANA - America's new top diplomat in Havana dislikes comparisons with his predecessor, the tough-talking former U.S. Interests Section chief whom Fidel Castro called a ''bully'' and who donned a pink robe to mock a Cuban cartoon portraying him as a fairy princess.

Even Castro has mentioned the difference, describing Michael Parmly's correspondence as "respectful.''

Yet Parmly, who has spent much of his career nurturing human rights and democracy in nations recovering from conflict, says he and predecessor James Cason differ only in style.

He said there is no difference at all when it comes to carrying out U.S. policies to promote change in Cuba's communist society.

He and Cason, who was sworn in last week as the new U.S. ambassador to Paraguay, "just have different styles.''

U.S. policy toward Cuba includes a 44-year-old trade embargo aimed at forcing a change in Castro's government -- something the Cuban leader says will never happen. The policy also includes a 400-page blueprint for American aid to a post-Castro Cuba, a report that communist officials say is a thinly veiled plan for regime change and U.S. occupation of the island.

Parmly, 54, is a career diplomat with 28 years experience in countries that include Romania under the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Parmly rejected characterizations of his predecessor's style as provocative.

During his three years here, Cason undertook a number of bold acts designed to draw attention to Cuba's rights record, including building a replica of a dissident's jail in his backyard.

Since Parmly's arrival, Castro's only mention of the new envoy was to praise his ''respectful'' style when the U.S. government offered to send a disaster assessment team after Hurricane Wilma caused massive flooding in Havana in October. The team never came, amid disagreement over the nature of the trip.

President's man in Havana

Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2005

o NAME: Michael E. Parmly.
o AGE: 54, born in St. Augustine.
o EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Latin American Studies from St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia, master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
o EARLY YEARS: Served as U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Bucaramanga, Colombia, working in the field of youth development.
o FAMILY: Married to Marie-Catherine, with whom he has two children, Berengere Marie, 26 and Christopher Wells, 17.

Castro attends summit, pays tribute at crash memorial

Attending a Caribbean summit in Barbados, Cuban leader Fidel Castro praised Cuba's doctors and their service to the region and paid tribute to the victims of a downed Cuban airliner.

By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Fri, Dec. 09, 2005.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro made a rare appearance abroad Thursday, visiting Barbados for a Caribbean Community meeting and to honor the victims of a 1976 Cuban airliner bombing blamed on jailed exile Luis Posada Carriles.

''That was a very touching experience,'' Castro said at an evening news conference broadcast live on Barbados' CBC radio station website. "This has been such an incredible day.''

Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Castro gave a 13-minute speech to heads of government of the Caribbean Community in which he boasted of Cuba's medical system for having dispatched more than 1,000 medical personnel across the Caribbean.

He and the Caribbean leaders then attended a brief wreath-laying ceremony at a seven-foot pyramid-like marble monument erected in 1998 on the west coast of Barbados to commemorate the terror bombing of Cubana de Aviación's Flight 455.

The 1976 flight exploded just north of Barbados, killing all 73 people on board.

Castro won an important moral victory when the 15-member Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, signed a declaration demanding the U.S. government extradite Posada, accused of plotting the explosion. Castro has demanded his extradition to face charges in Venezuela, but a U.S. immigration judge has refused. Posada is being held at an immigration facility in Texas.

''This is a terrible deed, complicity with this terrorist,'' Castro said. "I think this is disgusting. . . . We are not asking for revenge, we are asking for justice. Such a crime has no penalties.''

Officials present at the meeting said Castro was sharp and lucid, scoffing at a recent Herald report that said the CIA has been telling U.S. policymakers that Castro has Parkinson's disease.

'AS SHARP AS EVER'

Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell said Castro ''looks good.'' And Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said his "intellectual acuity is as sharp as ever.''

The Cuban delegation played a 13-minute video about Cuba's assistance to the Caribbean, which includes 1,142 doctors working in CARICOM nations. Castro also boasted that 14 Caribbean nations have sent more than 3,000 students to study at Cuban schools.

''As of yesterday, thanks to Operation Miracle, 10,502 citizens from 11 nations have been operated on in Cuba in just four months and 14 days,'' Castro said. "That is to say, a pace of 30,000 patients a year.''

FREE-TRADE ZONE

The CARICOM leaders also announced that nine Caribbean countries -- Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago -- will be ready to participate in the region's new free-trade agreement by Jan. 1.

The regional trade deal known as the Caribbean Single Market and Economy will allow for certain goods and skilled workers to move freely throughout the participating CARICOM member states in hopes of creating jobs and boosting the economies in the region.

Leonard Robertson, a spokesman for CARICOM, said this year's meeting focused on sustaining human development in the Caribbean. In addition to the political document known as the Declaration of Bridgetown, he said CARICOM and Cuba also agreed to more cultural cooperation.

Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles and special correspondent Arturo Valentino contributed to this report.

Jeb: Castro dig an honor

Posted on Wed, Dec. 07, 2005.

TALLAHASSEE -- (AP) -- Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he was ''honored'' Cuban President Fidel Castro had referred to him as President Bush's "fat little brother in Florida.''

Castro made the comment while wondering if the governor had helped a suspected anti-Cuba terrorist enter the United States in a Nov. 17 speech at the University of Havana. Students responded with laughter.

''I'm flattered and honored,'' Bush said with a smile, but then turned serious.

"I will take any criticism from Fidel Castro, of all people, as an honor given the fact that, you know, eight million people, I believe, live on the island, eight million people are repressed and they've been that way for 40 or 50 years.

''To be criticized by a man like that who has repressed people for such an extended period of time is a high honor,'' Bush added. "He can call me whatever he wants.''

In his speech, Castro said his comment was intended as constructive criticism.

Castro urges 'fat' Gov. Bush to get fit

By Marc Caputo, mcaputo@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Dec. 06, 2005.

TALLAHASSEE - In a recent harangue about how a suspected anti-Cuba terrorist entered the United States, Fidel Castro singled out Gov. Jeb Bush -- and went straight for the gut.

Castro called the governor ''the fat little brother in Florida'' and wondered if Bush had helped Luis Posada Carriles into the country, according to a transcript released Monday of the Nov. 17 address to University of Havana students, who erupted in laughter.

The Cuban leader didn't stop there.

'Forgive me for using the term 'fat little brother' '' Castro said. "It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don't you think? I'm doing this for the gentleman's health.''

The governor's office wouldn't ''dignify this with a response,'' a spokesman said. In an e-mail, Bush declined Monday to discuss Castro's comments, saying questions about it were the product of a "slow news day.''

During a question-and-answer session Monday with the press, a reporter asked if there were anything in this week's special lawmaking session that gives him "heartburn.''

Joked Bush: "I thought you were talking about my diet. I didn't have breakfast today.''

When he first took office in 1999, Bush was more svelte when he would climb 22 flights of stairs to the top of the Capitol. Since then, his pace has slackened.

In October, Bush lamented to students at Tallahassee's Canopy Oaks Elementary School that he's not walking enough. The students were challenged to wear pedometers and take 10,000 steps daily to remain fit, though Bush managed 735 that day.

''This is kind of a struggle for me,'' he was quoted as saying by The New York Times Regional News Service. Bush explained he walks less than he would like because he gets whisked about by security cars to far-flung events.

Defector just looking for a chance

Cuban Bárbaro Cañizares, who is playing in Nicaragua, wants the opportunity to show he can play in the major leagues.

By Kevin Baxter, kbaxter@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Dec. 12, 2005.

Fifty dollars.

That's all it took to change Bárbaro Cañizares' life forever. And though time will ultimately tell if it's changed for better or worse, on at least one level worse seems to be winning. In a rout.

''I can't stand not being with him,'' said Onix Vargas, a Miami beautician and the Cuban ballplayer's girlfriend of 12 years. "It hurts. I want him with me, because I want to start a family. We want to start a family. But we can't do that if we're apart.''

And they have been apart for more than a year, since shortly after Cañizares said goodbye to the rest of his family in Cuba to begin a complicated journey that took him to the Bahamas, Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica and finally to Nicaragua, where he leads that country's four-team winter league in hits (40), home runs (eight) and RBI (27) through 33 games.

That might be good enough to earn him a shot at playing -- and starting a family -- in the United States, which is all he has wanted. This month, the Yankees and Mets sent scouts to see Cañizares play with the Mets' Wilfredo Blanco, liking enough of what he saw to recommend a contract and a $20,000 bonus.

HAVING FAITH

''I have faith that I'll get the chance to go,'' Cañizares said from Managua, where he plays on a Boer team featuring fellow Cubans Michael Abreu, Yosandri Ibañez and Maikel Neninger. They left the island together in February 2004, placing them among the 29 baseball players who have defected from Cuba in the past two years but have yet to sign with big-league teams.

Cañizares' journey began shortly after he gave a fan in Havana the shirt off his back. What he didn't know, though, was the foreigner he sold his national team jersey to was an official with the U.S. Interests Section. Because of that, Cañizares received a lifetime suspension from Cuban baseball -- and left him no choice but to defect.

''That was like telling me I couldn't live,'' he told Nicaraguan journalist Edgard Rodriguez. "My life was baseball. My dream was to make the Cuban team. I had no interest in politics.''

Sounds good, but the truth is a bit more complicated. An earlier defector, Osmani Garcia, told one baseball agent that Cañizares was ''crazy'' about leaving as far back as 1999 -- desires Cañizares confirmed in Mexico in 2002, days before security around the Cuban team was tightened following the defection of pitcher Jose Contreras.

The suspension, however, forced his hand.

''I was going to leave,'' he said. "It didn't matter how.''

But he might have acted too late. Although Cañizares insists he is 26 years old, he already had played eight full seasons in the Cuban national series by 2002, when he was named MVP of the Intercontinental Cup tournament in Havana. The Cuban roster at that competition listed his birth date as Nov. 21, 1974, which would make him 31 now -- ancient for a 6-2, 220-pound catcher starting in pro ball.

AMONG THE LEADERS

On the plus side is his performance in Nicaragua, his first real competition in two years. Aside from his power numbers, Cañizares also ranks among the league leaders in doubles (eight), triples (three), runs (23) and batting (.325). Every one of those numbers is better than those of Abreu, who got a $425,000 bonus to sign with the Red Sox in September, only to have the deal voided when Abreu was unable to establish the proper residency to qualify for a visa, then was found to have lied about his age.

''All we want is the chance to go [to the U.S.] and demonstrate what we can do,'' said Abreu, who was hitting .264 with five homers and 15 RBI through 110 at-bats for Boer. "For now, we've stopped here, but at least the possibility exists to go forward.''

And that's something -- among other things -- the players didn't have in Cuba.

''Everyone is free to think, to act, to do what they want,'' said Neninger, who was 2-3 with a 4.10 ERA in seven games. "That allows us to overcome the other things we don't have, like money, to reach our goals.''

Added Cañizares, who gets about $2,000 a month plus room and board in Nicaragua: "We're better off here than in Cuba, because at least we're free and we can do what we want and achieve what we can. We feel bad, because we haven't accomplished what we want. But we have faith we'll get the chance.''

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