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January 27, 2006

Cuba names new Guantánamo boss

By Carol Rosenberg, , crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- The Cuban army general who has been the Pentagon's primary contact with this isolated U.S. Navy base has retired and been replaced by a navy captain, the U.S. commander here says.

Brig. Gen. José Solar Hernández, commander of the Frontier Brigade deployed around the base, announced his retirement Monday at the monthly meeting held along the fence that separates the Navy facility from Cuba proper.

He was replaced by Cuban Navy Capt. Pedro Román Cisneros, a 37-year veteran who served in submarines, U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Leary told The Miami Herald in an interview this week.

Cuba is believed to have retired its three submarines after the loss of Soviet subsidies. Analysts describe its navy today as a tiny, short-range force whose purpose is to defend the coast and intercept civilian vessels on unauthorized trips.

The United States and Cuba started monthly meetings here a decade ago to avert misunderstandings between U.S. Marines and Cuban soldiers who face off across a 17.4-mile fence.

U.S. officials said they had advance notice from Solar of his retirement, so Leary bought a cigar humidor at the base commissary and had it engraved with a crest as a farewell present.

''He seemed genuinely pleased with it,'' said Leary.

Cuba travel curtailed further

The U.S. government suspended the license of one of the largest local companies organizing trips to Cuba.

By Oscar Corral, ocorral@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006.

The U.S. Treasury Department this week began a crackdown on illegal travel to Cuba, suspending the license of one of South Florida's largest Cuba travel agencies -- La Estrella de Cuba.

The move could affect tens of thousands of people who have been searching for ways to travel to Cuba from the United States in the wake of the Bush administration's tightened travel restrictions imposed in 2004.

Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said Thursday that the Office of Foreign Assets Control is conducting on-site audits at agencies that do business with Cuba, aiming to complete 25 audits this year.

"Instances of serious license violations may result in license suspension, cease-and-desist orders or penalties imposed under the Trading With the Enemy Act.''

The move comes just days after OFAC cleared the way for the Cuban national baseball team to play in the World Baseball Classic, a decision celebrated by many in Congress and Major League Baseball but scorned by Cuban-American congressional representatives.

Millerwise said OFAC had so far suspended one Cuba travel license.

Pierre Galoppi, owner of La Estrella de Cuba, which has several offices in South Florida, said OFAC agents handed his managers at various stores a letter Monday explaining that they no longer could book travel to Cuba.

''I cannot take any new customers,'' Galoppi explained. "Our license has been suspended: the travel service provider, the carrier service provider, and the remittance forwarder. Obviously, we're not pleased with it. It comes as a surprise.''

Estrella de Cuba, one of the biggest of about 250 licensed Cuba travel agencies nationwide, booked 300 to 500 passengers to Cuba every month, Galoppi said.

'TECHNICAL PROCEDURE'

The suspension was based on ''a violation based on a technical procedure,'' Galoppi said, declining to explain in greater detail. He said that all travel to Cuba booked through his agency before Monday will be honored but that no more trips can be booked.

The Bush administration has been tightening restrictions and enforcing them more aggressively, arguing that travel to Cuba helps prop up the communist government.

Earlier this month, OFAC targeted members of Pastors for Peace and the Venceremos Brigade, U.S. groups that have long organized trips to Cuba in open defiance of U.S. restrictions. OFAC sent letters to about 200 people who traveled under the groups' licenses asking them to provide information on their latest trips, which could lead to fines of $7,500 per member.

For the past year and a half, OFAC has received complaints from congressional representatives of religious institutions with licenses to travel to Cuba -- particularly Santero groups -- abusing their privileges by sending non-believers under their religious licenses.

Those abuses began after the Bush administration imposed strict restrictions on Cuba travel in 2004, forcing Cuban-Americans who wanted to go to the island to look for creative solutions, said Jose Montoya, head of the Sacerdocio Lucumi Shango Eyeife in Miami, one of the Santero groups whose license was suspended.

Another Santeria group lost its license last year: Santa Yemaya Ministries, run by Fabio Galoppi, Pierre Galoppi's brother. Pierre Galoppi said that license was revoked.

The Santeria groups went from licensing a few dozen passengers for Cuba travel before 2004 to licensing thousands in the months after the new restrictions kicked in, Montoya said.

Now there appears to be a new twist. After OFAC cracked down on the Santeria licenses last year, thousands of people who traveled to Cuba with Santero groups have been traveling to Cuba again under Christian group licenses.

Groups with licenses to travel to Cuba, including religious groups, had a Jan. 20 deadline to report to OFAC the names of people who went to Cuba and the license they used.

''Those people are violating the law,'' Montoya said. "If you travel as a Santero one year, how are you going to travel as a Christian the next?''

Galoppi said he and his lawyers are ''working diligently'' to correct any mistakes that may have been made.

PLEASED

Congressional representatives said Thursday that they were pleased with OFAC's move.

''OFAC is merely implementing the laws regulating travel to Cuba, which have been clearly spelled out for months and years,'' said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, through spokesman Alex Cruz.

"Some are exploiting the suffering and anxiety of the Cuban people, divided by Castro in order to make money on these trips.''

Pedro Gonzalez-Munne, owner of Cuba Promotions, an agency that promotes travel to Cuba, said OFAC's crackdown could cause Cuba to respond by cutting off direct flights from the United States.

''This is excessive,'' Gonzalez-Munne said.

"This is no longer about regulation or the embargo, but of a morbid and stupid hate from one group toward another. This is an act of aggression against Cuban families.''

It's illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba without a license, though some people attempt to do so through a third country, such as Mexico, with the understanding that Cuban officials will not stamp their U.S. passports.

In 2004, the administration collected $1.5 million in fines from 894 people caught traveling to Cuba without a license.

U.S. sign may be blocked

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Thu, Jan. 26, 2006.

The electronic billboard that displays news and human-rights messages from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana may be losing its audience: The Cuban government Wednesday began building a structure that will block it from view.

The Cuban government marched more than one million people past the U.S. Interests Section in a protest against the Bush administration Tuesday. Just as leader Fidel Castro began to speak, American diplomats turned on the ticker-tape machine.

Castro called the Americans "cockroaches.''

On Wednesday, Cuban authorities told U.S. diplomats they would no longer be allowed to use the parking lot in front of the building on Havana's seafront Malecón avenue, according to a U.S. Interests Section statement. Construction work started on the adjoining property soon afterwards, the statement said.

'The regime appears to be building a permanent structure that, we believe, seeks to obstruct Cubans' view of the uncensored messages and information posted on our streaming billboard,'' the statement read. "The regime's reaction is not surprising: building walls to isolate Cubans from the rest of the world is what the regime knows best.''

News agencies reported bulldozers emblazoned with Cuban flags arrived early Wednesday at the area, officially known as the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Plaza.

Cuba appoints captain to command unit around U.S. base

By Carol Rosenberg, crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Thu, Jan. 26, 2006.

Brig. Gen. José Solar Hernández, commander of the Frontier Brigade deployed around the base, announced his retirement Jan. 20 at the monthly regularly meeting held along the fence that separates the Navy facility from Cuba proper.

He was replaced by Cuban Navy Capt. Pedro Román Cisneros, U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Leary told The Miami Herald in an interview this week.

The United States and Cuba started monthly meetings here a decade ago to avert misunderstandings between U.S. Marines and Cuban soldiers who face off across a 17.4-mile fence.

For example, before the United States opened the 8,000-mile air-bridge that brought al Qaeda and Taliban suspects here from Afghanistan in January 2002, the U.S. side used the fence-line meeting to notify the Cuban government of its intent to hold suspected terrorists on the 45-square-mile base.

The job of commanding the Frontier Guard unit is significant because it signals the Cuban government's trust in a person who regularly meets with U.S. officers.

Leary said the new commander, Cisneros, is a veteran navy officer of 37 years who served in submarines. Cuba is believed to have retired its three submarines nearly a decade ago after the loss of Soviet subsidies to Havana.

Cuba had a small, Soviet-supplied naval fleet during the Cold War. But military analysts describe its navy today as a tiny, short-range force whose purpose is to defend the coast and intercept civilian vessels on unauthorized trips.

Leary reported that so far there has been a seamless transition from Solar to Cisneros, who already has engaged in a routine e-mail exchange with the base through a special communications link.

U.S. officials said they had advance notice from Solar of his retirement, so Leary bought a humidor at the base commissary and had it engraved with a crest as a farewell present.

''He seemed genuinely pleased with it,'' said Leary.

U.S., Cubans wage flashy war of words

The Cuban government staged a massive protest in Havana outside the U.S. diplomatic mission, which displayed its own messages to the protesters on a billboard.

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com, Posted on Wed, Jan. 25, 2006.

Havana's billboard war saw more salvos fired Tuesday as the U.S. and Cuban governments stoked their decades-old confrontation with competing messages.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro shepherded about one million people to a protest outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in the Cuban capital in one of his government's periodic immense protests against Washington.

But just as the 79-year-old leader was about to speak to the masses, American diplomats couldn't resist taking advantage of a captive audience and lit up the electronic ticker-tape billboard recently erected on the side of the building.

''To those who may want to be here, we respect your protest. To those who don't want to be here, excuse the bother,'' the sign declared in a reference to strong government pressures that ensure attendance at such protests is high.

The sign was the latest in a public relations battle between Cuba and the diplomatic mission, officially known as the U.S. Interests Section, each using billboards and displays to mock the other.

''To help Cubans shuck off their propaganda strait jacket, we have creatively used new measures to dialogue with them -- and the streaming, electronic billboard is just our latest initiative,'' U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly said in an e-mail to The Miami Herald. "Our goal is to show Cubans that other long-repressed people have realized their democratic aspirations.''

Another of the billboard's messages Tuesday read, "Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen.''

CASTRO IRRITATED

Castro was clearly irked by the billboard, calling it another ''provocation'' aimed at forcing a total break in U.S.-Cuba relations.

''They turned on the little sign. How brave the cockroaches are,'' Castro retorted. 'Looks like 'Bushecito' gave the order.''

Castro called for the ''March of the People'' two days ago to protest the U.S. refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile accused in a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73. Lasting seven hours and led by former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, it was one of the largest such marches in recent years.

''They are beaten. Injustice is on its knees,'' Cuba's government newspaper Granma quoted Castro as telling the crowd. "Nobody believes in the empire.''

Organized by school, work and military groups, the marchers waved little red, white and blue Cuban flags and signs showing Posada's face in a triangle above the words ''Danger: Murderer,'' news agencies reported from Havana. They chanted "Bush: fascist! Condemn the terrorist!''

Posada was acquitted by a Venezuelan court in the Cuban airliner explosion, but escaped from prison while awaiting a government appeal. He was captured in Miami last year and is being held in Texas by an immigration court; Tuesday was the last day for evidence to be presented in his efforts to win his freedom.

''We don't want revenge, we just want justice,'' marcher Lucía Roja, a retired educator, told the Associated Press.

Marchers like Roja were able to see the U.S. billboard messages, including the news that the U.S. Treasury Department had decided to allow Cuba to play in the upcoming World Baseball Classic tournament. They also saw quotes from Lech Walesa, Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln.

''Only such regimes would be outraged by the sayings of Martin Luther King, Vaclav Havel and Gandhi,'' Parmly said.

REACHING PEOPLE

A U.S. official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name, said Tuesday's use of the sign was common sense: "If the point is to reach people, why not turn it on when a million people are cruising by?''

The official said the messages deliberately include bad news about the United States in an attempt to show Cuban people that the U.S. government does not censor the media.

The U.S. Interests Section would not say how much the billboard cost.

The billboard follows a large sign bearing the number ''75,'' hung last year from the building's facade as a reference to the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in 2003.

The Cuban government retaliated with enormous murals, displayed near the U.S. diplomatic center, of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Other billboards set up around the American mission showed bloody brass knuckles, bullets and meat hooks stamped with ''Posada & Bush Company.'' Another poster showed the faces of Bush and Hitler with an equal sign pointing to Posada's face, the AP said.

According to an AP report, the prison abuse sign -- including one with a swastika bearing a ''Made in the U.S.A.'' stamp -- were removed this week and replaced with what appeared to be a movie poster showing Bush and Posada with vampire teeth and blood in their mouths.

The sign purported to advertise an upcoming film dubbed The Murderer, "coming soon to American courts.''

Couple spied on president of FIU, FBI says

Accused Cuban spies targeted the president of Florida International University, according to a government affidavit.

By Oscar Corral And Jay Weaver, ocorral@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Jan. 25, 2006.

Carlos M. and Elsa Alvarez spied on Florida International University President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique, giving details in at least one report to their Cuban intelligence handlers about a White House invitation Maidique received, according to a government affidavit obtained by The Miami Herald.

FBI agents executed a search warrant at FIU Jan. 12, and seized the Alvarezes' computers from their respective offices. That search was a follow-up to the FBI's discoveries in the Alvarezes' home computers, which were linked to those at their offices, according to an FBI affidavit.

The document offers a first glimpse at the information the FBI believes the Alvarezes -- charged with failing to register as foreign agents -- provided to Cuban intelligence agents over the last three decades.

Cristina Mendoza, FIU's general counsel, said university officials sealed off the couple's campus offices and university police have stood guard around the clock. Mendoza said the FBI agents, at the university's request, scheduled their search for the night of Jan. 12 so they would not disrupt the campus during the day.

Mendoza said the FBI has not asked to talk with Maidique, who was close to the couple. They allegedly gathered information about Maidique and other leaders in Miami's exile community.

The Alvarezes' home computers turned up the White House invitation report, as well as others.

''Both Carlos and Elsa Alvarez reported on prominent university-level academics in South Florida,'' the affidavit said. "These targets included colleagues of the Alvarezes at FIU, and included Modesto Maidique . . . This information has been verified by data taken from the home computer of the Alvarezes, which shows them reporting on the activities of President Maidique, including an invitation he received to attend a function at the White House.''

FIU spokesman Mark Riordan said Maidique declined to comment on the affidavit. Maidique has been to the White House at least a dozen times over the years, Riordan said. Earlier this month, U.S. authorities accused Elsa Prieto Alvarez, 55, and her husband, Carlos Alvarez, 61, of operating as covert agents for Cuba for decades. U.S. prosecutors said Carlos Alvarez, an associate professor at FIU, had spied for Cuba since 1977 and his wife, a psychology counselor at the university, since 1982.

The Alvarezes' home computers were linked to their office computers, and the FBI believes the Alvarezes could "electronically access student records and faculty information via home and office computer.''

TRAVELS

Carlos Alvarez traveled to Cuba and other countries under the auspices of FIU and other academic institutions. ''While on these overseas trips, and using the cover of FIU academics, Carlos Alvarez would meet with their handlers or supervisors from the DI [Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence] to receive new assignments and tender reports on completed assignments,'' the affidavit said.

The affidavit also sheds light on the requests Cuba sent to Carlos Alvarez to recruit students. Alvarez voluntarily reported to the DI that one of his students was an FBI analyst. Alvarez feared that his DI status might be compromised if his superiors found out that he was interacting with an FBI employee.

The affidavit also attempts to link the professor's recruitment efforts to Puentes Cubanos, or Cuban Bridges, a nonprofit group that is not affiliated with FIU.

''Moreover, in 2002, the DI assigned Carlos Alvarez to begin screening and evaluating students, some of them at FIU, that would be traveling to Cuba as part of an exchange program known as Puentes Cubanos,'' the affidavit said. "The DI was interested in which of these exchange students would be amenable to recruitment by the DI. Although Carlos Alvarez stated that he never received a follow-up request for actual names of potential recruits, he has stated to FBI agents that he would have provided that information if asked.''

The affidavit does not give a date for Maidique's White House invitation. But Maidique has been a strong supporter of the last three Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush. Miami Herald archives show that Maidique, a member of the current president's education advisory panel, attended an East Room ceremony at the White House in January 2001.

The Alvarezes used their FIU colleagues to gather information on other people ''of interest'' to the Cuban government, the affidavit said.

''In one instance, Carlos Alvarez inquired of another FIU professor regarding a meeting between a third professor and a member of the Clinton administration who was believed to favor increased academic exchanges between the United States and Cuba,'' the affidavit said.

EXILES SHAKEN

Anti-Castro exile leaders were shaken by the new details.

''My God, that's something!'' said Brothers to the Rescue Founder Jose Basulto, whose group has been infiltrated by Cuban spies.

FIU officials said the FBI interviewed the university's information technology manager before the Jan. 12 search and plans to return to the campus to interview other employees.

Agents compiled the seized materials on two one-page inventory lists and gave them to the university.

Miami Herald staff writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.

U.S. diplomats in Havana flash messages to Cuban protesters outside

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006.

U.S. diplomats in Havana flash messages to Cuban protesters outside as Fidel Castro addresses the government-sponsored march.

Havana's billboard war saw more salvos fired Tuesday as the U.S. and Cuban governments stoked their decades-old confrontation with competing messages.

''To those who may want to be here, we respect your protest. To those who don't want to be here, excuse the bother,'' the sign declared in a subtle reference to the strong government pressures that ensure attendance at such protests is high.

The sign was the latest in an a public relations battle between Cuba and the diplomatic mission, officially known as the U.S. Interests Section, each using billboards and displays to mock the other.

''To help Cubans shuck off their propaganda straight jacket, we have creatively used new measures to dialogue with them -- and the streaming, electronic billboard is just our latest initiative,'' U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly said in an e-mail to the Miami Herald. "Our goal is to show Cubans that other long-repressed people have realized their democratic aspirations.''

Another of the billboard's messages Tuesday read, "Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen.''

Castro was clearly irked by the billboard, calling it another ''provocation'' aimed at forcing a total break in U.S.-Cuba relations.

''They turned on the little sign. How brave the cockroaches are,'' Castro retorted. "Looks like Bushecito gave the order.''

Castro called for the ''March of the People'' two days ago to protest the U.S. refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile accused in a 1976 bombing of a Havana airliner that killed 73. Lasting seven hours and led by former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, it was one of largest such marches in recent years.

''They are beaten. Injustice is on its knees,'' Cuba's government newspaper Granma quoted Castro as telling the crowd. "Nobody believes in the empire.''

''We don't want revenge, we just want justice,'' marcher Lucía Roja, a retired educator, told the Associated Press.

''Only such regimes would be outraged by the sayings of Martin Luther King, Vaclav Havel and Gandhi,'' Parmly said.

A U.S. official who requested anonymity, because he was not authorized to be quoted by name said Tuesday's use of the sign was common sense: "If the point is to reach people, why not turn it on when a million people are cruising by?''

The official said the messages deliberately include bad news for the United States, in an attempt to show Cuban people that the U.S. government does not censor the media. The U.S. Interests Section would not say how much the billboard cost. Max Lesnick, an anti-embargo Cuban activist who held a protest in Miami last week urging Posada's extradition, blasted the American billboard as a provocation.

''It makes no sense to dedicate oneself to acts of propaganda that can be seen as hostile,'' Lesnick said. "Diplomacy is based on dialogue, not confrontation.''

The billboard follows a large sign showing the number ''75'' hung last year from the building's facade as a reference to the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in 2003.

The Cuban government retaliated with enormous murals, displayed near the U.S. diplomatic center, of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

According to an Associated Press report, the prison abuse sign -- including one with a swastika bearing a ''Made in the U.S.A.'' stamp -- were removed this week and replaced with what appeared to be a movie poster showing Bush and Posada with vampire teeth and blood in their mouths.

The sign purported to advertise an upcoming film dubbed ''The Murderer'' -- "coming soon to American courts.''

Other billboards set up around the American mission showed bloody brass knukles, bullets and meat hooks stamped with ''Posada & Bush Company.'' Another poster showed the faces of Bush and Hitler with an equal sign pointing to Posada's face, the AP report said.

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