CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Aging Cuban musicians fight for royalty rights

A New Jersey-based music company is battling over the rights to the golden age of Cuban music.

By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Oct. 03, 2005.

It is a legal case unlike any other that London justice has seen before: British lawyers, minus their heavy robes and white wigs because of the tropical heat, and aged Cuban musicians decked out in 1940s zoot suits.

The setting was Villa Lita, a Havana mansion outfitted for a case that stands to decide the proceeds from decades of old Cuban music made famous again by the Buena Vista Social Club album and movie.

Its protagonists: A New Jersey-based company, a Cuban government agency and elderly men with tales of playing music from Cuba's musical golden age back when Fidel Castro was a schoolboy.

The British High Court moved to Havana last week to take testimony in a landmark case pitting U.S. music company Peer International against the Cuban agency that claims the copyrights to the old tunes.

The case is over only 14 songs, but potentially at stake are thousands of compositions by songwriters who went unpaid for years because of the U.S. embargo.

Men whose music was largely forgotten before the Buena Vista Social Club hit in 1997 are suddenly worth fighting over.

''To the Cubans, and by Cubans I mean the man on the street, this is like the Elgin marbles,'' said British attorney Graham Shear, who represents the Editora Musical de Cuba, referring to ancient artifacts that the British Museum refuses to return to Greece.

''To Cubans, it's not principally about money,'' he said. "For Cubans as a whole, this is about their cultural heritage.''

Peer International bought the rights to thousands of Cuban songs from the 1930s until Castro's revolution in 1959. The company says the U.S. embargo prevented it from paying the authors living in Cuba after 1959. But money was deposited in a U.S. Treasury Department escrow account when artists like Celia Cruz and Nat ''King'' Cole recorded some of the songs.

In 1960, the Cuban government canceled the contracts and expropriated the intellectual-property rights. When companies not under the U.S. embargo use those songs, they pay royalties that are shared by the Cuban government and the artists.

'The Cuban state's real aim was to ensure that the Cuban authorities were able to take a 'cut' from any royalties earned by composers,'' a Peer court filing says.

When American guitarist Ry Cooder went to Havana and produced a documentary, he made international stars out of the aged Cuban musicians. Peer owned the title track and several others.

By then the U.S. government had loosened the embargo to allow payments to musicians, so Peer paid out $2.5 million to Cuban musicians and their heirs.

''Peer is unique in that it sought a license to permit for payments to be made,'' Peer attorney Marisa Berardi said by phone from London.

After the movie, Termidor, a German music company working with Editora Musical de Cuba, registered the copyrights for several Cuban musicians in England.

Peer -- still holding decades-old contracts -- sued the companies, claiming to still own the rights to 14 disputed songs by five musicians, including Ignacio Piñeiro's Echale Salsita and Antonio ''Nico Saquito'' Fernández' Cuidadito Compay Gallo.

''Peer has a long history of promoting Latin American music,'' Berardi said.

The trial began in London in May. Some of the Cuban musicians who sold songs to Peer were set to testify by video link, but when the technology failed Justice John Lindsay moved the trial to Havana.

There, according to media reports, British lawyers working for the Cuban agency charged that Peer took advantage of musicians who did not understand what they signed and that they didn't get paid even after they did. Some of the deals involved only a few pesos and a bottle of strong rum, the lawyers claimed.

Among the issues: Did Peer breach the contract by obeying the U.S. embargo and failing to pay? And, even if it did pay, was it enough?

Peer company officials say other heirs have quietly approached the company asking to continue the contracts, but they wish to do so without the Cuban government's knowledge so officials won't seize their money.

''This has been characterized as a test case,'' Berardi said. "It's highly important to Editora Cubana and important to Peer. It's a hard-fought case.''

Testimony in Cuba concluded Wednesday, and the case resumes Oct. 17 in London.

Elián, five years later: 'I've grown up'

Elián González talked about his turbulent Miami experience Sunday in a CBS television interview broadcast on '60 Minutes.'

By Elaine De Valle, edevalle@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Oct. 03, 2005.

He is now 11, likes math at school and computers, calls Fidel Castro a friend and ''father,'' and says he could go into politics, although he hasn't given it much thought.

Oh, and he has a girlfriend, but he won't reveal her name.

''It's a secret,'' said Elián González, flashing the only smile during the much anticipated interview with CBS reporter Bob Simon, aired Sunday on 60 Minutes.

During the rest of the 13-minute segment, the famous little rafter boy is grim, seemingly on the verge of tears, as he talks about the journey to Miami and his memories.

''Everything has changed,'' Elián said. "Time has passed, and I've grown up. I don't like to be alone. I always like being around others so I can be calm and not remember what happened.''

He was a month shy of turning 6 when he was plucked from a floating inner tube on Thanksgiving Day 1999 by two cousins fishing off Fort Lauderdale.

His mother and 10 others drowned when their homemade boat capsized on its way from Cuba, and he was quickly thrust into an emotional international custody battle. That ended when federal agents seized him five months later at his Miami relatives' home and took him to his father, Juan Miguel, in Washington, D.C.

Elián also said in Sunday's broadcast interview that he didn't know he was coming to Miami when his mother and the others carried him to a boat on Nov. 22, 1999.

"They told me we were going fishing and we could see my uncles. Since I was little, I didn't understand what that was, to see my uncles?''

'I DIDN'T SEE ANYONE'

When the boat capsized in bad weather, he remembers being placed in an inner tube that his mother and her friends clung to. He said his mother argued with others before he fell asleep. "And when I opened my eyes, I didn't see anyone.''

Elián also said his Miami relatives tried to turn him against his father, who demanded his return.

''They were also telling me to tell him I did not want to go back to Cuba, and I always told them that I wanted to,'' Elián told Simon, who talked with the boy for more than an hour last month at a museum near his Cárdenas home.

FATHER AT INTERVIEW

His father was present, but a CBS spokesman said that no government officials monitored the interview and that no questions were off limits.

Between footage of Elián at school, riding his bike, embracing Castro or attending a political rally, the boy talked about his memories from Miami.

He couldn't think of anything when asked what his favorite part was. His least favorite?

''The nights,'' he quickly said. "I had nightmares. My uncles would talk to me about my mother, and for me, it was better that they didn't talk to me about that. It tormented me.''

During his months in Miami, he said, he didn't understand the constant commotion outside his Little Havana home.

''I couldn't figure out what was going on,'' he said. "They were not telling me what was happening, why [demonstrators] were shouting.''

He also spoke of April 22, 2000, when federal agents raided the home at dawn and took him back to his father.

''I was sleeping, and suddenly I woke up and they hid me in a closet. At that moment, I felt afraid,'' he said, referring to the uniformed agents armed with rifles. "I thought they were going to scold me or do something to me. When they said I was going to see my father, then I felt joy that I could get out of that house.''

Simon also interviewed Elián's uncle, Delfín González, and Cuban exile leader Ramón Saúl Sánchez. Both say the boy has been brainwashed.

''When you see a child talking the same exact way that the dictator has talked for 40-some years,'' Sánchez said, "you know he has been indoctrinated.''

'ALWAYS SMILING'

Delfín González, often photographed playing with the boy during his stay in Miami, said he does not believe that Elián was unhappy here.

''He was always smiling with me,'' said González, who watched the broadcast at the Little Havana home, now a museum and shrine to the boy.

The Herald was unable to reach other relatives after the broadcast. But Elián said in the interview that he wanted to see them again: "Despite everything they did -- the way they did it, it was wrong -- they are my family, my uncles.''

For U.S. group, it's just about Cuban children

As fewer Americans travel to Cuba, one group sidestepped controversy and politics by building playgrounds in Havana.

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press. Posted on Sat, Oct. 01, 2005.

HAVANA - A group of Americans has found a unique way to work in Cuba despite tough U.S. restrictions on travel to the communist-run island: building playgrounds for children.

Forty-nine volunteers led by San Diego real estate investor Bill Hauf are spending the week assembling modern park equipment in four Havana neighborhoods.

But they aren't talking about politics, particularly the U.S. trade and travel restrictions aimed at squeezing the island's economy and pushing out President Fidel Castro.

''We have been very successful with this project because we have been apolitical,'' Hauf said. "Both governments seem to understand this program is to help children -- in this case, they happen to be Cuban children. Our objective is to not take political sides.''

Hauf led his first group of American volunteers here two years ago to help construct three playgrounds.

The Treasury Department grants Americans licenses to travel to Cuba for humanitarian, religious and academic trips. The U.S. travel ban prohibits all Americans from ordinary tourism in Cuba.

As the government has tightened those limits, the numbers of Americans visiting has dropped. And those who do come seem increasingly reticent to speak out against the decades-old U.S. policy.

The number of Americans coming to Cuba fell 40 percent from 85,809 in 2003 to 51,027 last year, according to a Cuban report issued this week in protest against U.S. sanctions. The numbers fell further in 2005, the report said.

New U.S. rules purportedly aim to cut down on tourism under academic or humanitarian pretenses and ensure Americans see more than white-sand beaches and salsa concerts. Those coming without permission are being fined in record numbers.

The group -- It's Just the Kids, Inc. -- is constructing four playgrounds on the weeklong trip ending today. They can return in the spring to build four more under the group's two-year U.S. license.

U.S. says Cuba not trying to halt migrants

Cuba refuses to engage in dialogue over the 1995 migration accords, the U.S. State Department said, claiming the Castro regime uses the accords 'for political gain.'

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Sep. 29, 2005.

At a time when interceptions of Cuban migrants have doubled, the United States has accused Cuba's government of refusing to comply with 1995 migration accords designed to prevent another exodus to Florida.

Cuba doesn't try to stop migrants on vessels while they are still in Cuban territorial waters, and it refuses to issue exit permits to many citizens who receive U.S. travel documents allowed by the accords, according to a recent U.S. State Department report.

More than 500 potential migrants awarded one of the 20,000 entry visas the U.S. grants each year haven't been allowed out. Among them: 171 doctors.

Cuban officials, for their part, have accused Washington of dragging its feet on visas, trying to deliberately spark an exodus in an effort to topple the Castro government.

''The Castro regime's repeated allegations about purported U.S. designs to precipitate a mass migration crisis are patently false,'' James C. Cason, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, said in a statement earlier this month as he prepared to leave his post.

"Cubans who don't have a choice to leave legally are risking their lives, in the greatest numbers we have seen since 1994, on dangerously inadequate watercraft.''

The State Department report comes at a time when the U.S. Coast Guard is seeing a major increase in the number of Cuban migrants trying to cross the Florida straits, a situation widely blamed on deteriorating economic conditions on the island.

Cuba, the State Department report said, "has cynically chosen to manipulate [the accords] for political gain in an effort to continue to prevent the Cuban people's desire to live in freedom.''

The report reveals Washington's constant worry that another mass migration is a possibility.

'The government of Cuba remains unwilling to move forward on a substantive agenda and instead characterizes the U.S. government action as a political maneuver for which there will be 'very serious consequences,' '' the report warns.

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez is calling for the United States to reevaluate its position regarding the accords, citing Cuba's tendency to unleash mass migrations whenever the political situation on the island gets too hot.

''The Castro regime continues to use the accords as a tool of continued oppression and has furthermore used it as an escape valve to send his operatives to the United States,'' Martinez said in a written statement.

The 1995 accords were established by the Clinton administration in the wake of an exodus of an estimated 40,000 rafters and boaters from Cuba that overwhelmed the Coast Guard.

According to the document, Cuba's biggest impediments to ''safe, legal and orderly migration'' include:

Its refusal to issue exit permits to qualified migrants; 533 were denied this year.

o Its refusal to permit a new registration for the annual U.S. visa lottery, which allows as many as 20,000 Cubans to emigrate to the United States every year; the last signup for the lottery was in 1998;

o Its refusal to accept the return of Cuban criminals deemed excludable from the United States.

The State Department has accused Cuba of these actions since at least 2003.

Calls and emails to Lazaro Herrera, the spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, were not immediately returned.

The accords also established the controversial U.S. wet-foot, dry-foot policy, which generally allows Cubans who reach U.S. shores to stay, but repatriates most migrants picked up at sea.

Last week, 10 Cubans were stopped by U.S. authorities within sight of Miami-Dade's Haulover Beach. Television crews broadcast the scene of Coast Guard and Customs agents hosing down the migrants and slamming their vessel, briefly knocking several of them into the water.

The United States has yet to decide the status of the 10.

Since Oct. 1, 2004, 2,617 Cubans have been intercepted before reaching U.S. soil. That's more than double the number for the previous 12 months. The report blames the uptick on bad economic conditions in Cuba -- as well as Cuba's unwillingness to do much about migration.

Still, one Cuba expert, Unversity of Miami professor Jaime Suchlicki, doesn't think a mass migration from Cuba like the 1980 Mariel boatlift will happen anytime soon.

''A mass migration can only happen if the Cuban government looks the other way, and if the U.S. government doesn't react,'' Suchlicki said. "Fidel is concerned about a crisis that would lead to military confrontation with the Bush administration.''

Cuban American congressional representatives condemned the wet-foot, dry-foot policy after last week's drama and called on the Bush administration to tighten the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

The Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation on Monday sent letters to Cuban American legislators and to President Bush to ask that wet-foot, dry-foot be terminated.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she was not surprised that Cuba is not complying with the migration accords.

''This is a corrupt regime that lies, cheats, manipulates, obfuscates and is therefore not to be trusted to live up to its obligations,'' Ros-Lehtinen said in a written statement.

Jan Edmonson, a State Department spokeswoman, said the department issues reports on Cuban migration twice a year, as required by law.

The United States and Cuba had regular migration talks until December 2003, when Washington canceled a scheduled meeting because it said Cuba was unwilling to cooperate. Since then, there has been little communication between Washington and Havana on the migration issue.

Herald staff writer Frances Robles contributed to this report.

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